Nutritional Evaluation of Brillantaisia patula Leaves

Aim: To determine the nutritional and anti-nutritional compositions of Brillantaisia patula leaves using standard analytical methods. Place and Duration of Study: The proximate, mineral and anti-nutritional compositions were determined in the chemistry laboratory of Ekiti State University, Ado – Ekiti while the amino acid was determined at the Analytical Laboratory of Multi-Environmental Management Consultant, Lagos, Nigeria. Methodology: The proximate composition was carried out using the methods of Association of Official Chemists (AOAC) while mineral and anti-nutritional compositions were determined using standard analytical methods. Amino acid analysis was carried out through ion exchange chromatography (IEC) using the Technicon Sequential Multisample (TSM) Amino Acid Analyser. Results: The proximate composition ranged from 3.18% (crude fat) to 38.6% (carbohydrate). The major mineral constituents of the sample were: P (1061 mg/100g), K (874 mg/100g), Ca (799 mg/100g), Na (82.6 mg/100g) and Mg (24.3 mg/100g) while the minor mineral constituents were: Fe (26.9 mg/100g), Zn (7.7 mg/100g) and Mn (6.05 mg/100g). The evaluated anti-nutritional contents were: 6.71 mg/g oxalate, 5.37 % saponin, 1.0 mg/100g tannin and 4.72 mg/kg cyanide. Additional results showed that the leaves contained eighteen amino acids with values ranging from 0.504 g/100g cp (tryptophan) to 14.0 g/100g cp (glutamic acid). The value of the total essential amino acids (TEAA) with histidine was 45.6g/100g cp while the total non-essential amino acid (TNEAA) was evaluated to be 46.5 g/100g cp. Conclusion: Brillantaisia patula leaves could be utilized as a good source of essential amino acids and important mineral elements.

Degradation of Strength and Stiffness of Sandstones Caused by Wetting-Drying Cycles: The Role of Mineral Composition

Rock mechanical parameters are of great importance for the construction and design of rock engineering. Rocks are usually subjected to the deteriorating effect of cyclic wetting-drying because of the change in moisture content. The main objective of this study is to reveal the degradation effects of wetting-drying cycles on strength and modulus on varying rocks. Three kinds of sandstones with different mineral constituents are selected for testing. Artificial treatments of cyclic wetting-drying are conducted on respective specimens of the three sandstones (0, 10, 20, 30, and 40 cycles) to simulate the damage of rocks exposed to natural weathering. Uniaxial compressive tests are carried out on sandstone specimens to obtain their strength and modulus. Test results show that, for the tested sandstones, both of the uniaxial compressive strength (UCS) and modulus are reduced as the cyclic number rises. In the first ten cycles, the losses of UCS and modulus are very significant. Subsequently the changes of UCS and modulus become much more placid against cyclic number. When the cyclic number is the same, the loss percentages of rock mechanical properties of the three sandstones are very different which mainly depends on the contents of expandable and soluble minerals.

Effect of yeast extract on mineral starvation

The question of the importance of the mineral constituents of the poverty reap and its ash in the nutrition of the animal organism was first raised by the well-known Comission de Ia gelatine. In the reports of this Commission, we find, among other things, the assumption that the cause of death of animals, when fed with boiled meat, or washed in distilled water and squeezed out fibrin, is the low ash content of the food.

Tetracycline Removal from Water by Adsorption on Geomaterial, Activated Carbon and Clay Adsorbents

The use of antibiotics for breeding and for humans increased considerably in recent years, as a dietary supplement to enhance animal growth. This frequent use leads to the detection of residues in water and wastewater. Thus, the emergence of new strains of bacteria resistant to these antibiotics and, can lead to incurable diseases of livestock, and can lead to a possible transmission of these strains to humans. The purpose of this work is to develop new materials based on treated Maghnia clay, activated carbon, cement, and PVA polymer, named geomaterials. These materials were intended for the containment of hazardous wastes in landfills. The removal of tetracycline from aqueous solution was tested by adsorption onto synthesised geomaterials and their mineral constituents. Adsorption kinetics revealed that tetracycline was rapidly retained by GM and ATMa. This was confirmed by the relatively short equilibrium time of 30 min. The pseudo-second-order and intraparticle models well fitted the adsorption kinetic of the TC-adsorbent studied systems. It was noticed that the adsorption kinetic passes through several mechanisms, was demonstrated by the multi-linearity on the plot of qt against the square root of t. The adsorption capacity (Qa ) of TC onto GM is pH-dependent. Indeed, Qa reaches a maximum value (Qa = 12.58 mg ∙ g–1 at a very acidic pH of 2, then the adsorbed amount decreases to reach a minimum value at pH of 8, and for basic pHsQa increases up to 10 mg ∙ g–1.

GEOLOGICAL AND PETROGRAPHICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF SORAP MASSIF GABBROS, RAS-KOH OPHIOLITE, BALOCHISTAN, WESTERN PAKISTAN

This study discussed the Sorap Massif which is the ophiolitic fragment composed of the upper mantle and lower crustal section of an ophiolitic sequence. An ophiolitic sequence in Sorap Massif consists of harzburgite, dunite, large distant units of serpentinized wehrlite intrusion and outcrop of confined layered gabbro covered by the Quaternary sand dunes. The basal part of gabbroic intrusion is in contact with mantle rocks and the upper part is juxtaposed with the Kuchakki Volcanic Group. On outcrop-level and in hand specimen, the gabbros exhibit needle-like ferromagnesian minerals including hornblende associated with plagioclase and pyroxene. Petrographically the gabbros are classified into norite, gabbro norite and gabbro. The mineral constituents of norite are plagioclase, orthopyroxene and amphibole, gabbro norite is consists of equal constituents of orthopyroxene and clinopyroxene, plagioclase and amphibole and the gabbro is composed of clinopyroxene, plagioclase and amphibole. The high constituents of minerals such as pyroxene, amphibole and low constituents of olivine in the Sorap gabbros indicates that these gabbros are formed by the immature part of the oceanic plate with dehydration of the oceanic plate subduction.

Особенности структур распада твердого раствора Cu-Ag cульфидов на месторождении Теплое (Северо-Восток России)

The authors consider features of the triple structure of Ag-Cu-S solid solution decomposition resulted from redistribution of matter in the ores of the epithermal Au-Ag Teploye deposit due to the spatial combination of volcanogenic Au-Ag mineralization, with relatively later copper porphyry. The discovery of the mckinstryite, copper-silver sulfide, permits to consider the occurrence of copper in acanthite a non-structural impurity element, while the term "cupreous acanthite" appears insufficiently substantiated. It has been suggested that the mckinstryite-jalpaite (+ acanthite) structure was formed not by the decomposition of a solid solution or the crystallization of a normal hydrothermal solution, but but in the course of solidification of the sluggish, viscous, colloid-like substance in a metastable environment under low-temperature conditions, and was accompanied by structural rearrangement of its mineral constituents.

The use of Li2O fortified growing compost to enhance lithiation in white Agaricus bisporus mushrooms: Li uptake and co-accumulation of other trace elements

In an attempt to enrich the fruiting bodies with Lithium (Li), this study cultivated mushrooms using growing sets that were fortified with Li2O at 1.0, 5.0, 10, 50, 100 and 500 mg·kg−1 dw. Compost fortification up to 100 mg·kg−1 dw induced a dose-dependent increase in Li accumulation with resulting median mushroom concentrations of 2.0, 8.6, 16, 29 and 38 mg·kg−1 dw, respectively, relative to the unfortified control at 0.087 mg·kg−1 dw. The dose dependency appears to level off as Li2O addition approaches 100 mg·kg−1, suggesting that there is a limit to the ability of the species to accumulate/tolerate Li. Mushrooms did not grow at the 500 mg·kg−1 dw fortification level. At the highest viable level of fortification (100 mg·kg−1 dw), the fruiting bodies were around 440-fold richer in Li content than the control mushrooms. Additionally, the fortification at all levels up to 100 mg·kg−1 dw showed very low, if any, effect on the co-accumulation of the other, studied trace mineral constituents, with concentrations occurring at the lower range of those reported for commercial A. bisporus mushrooms.

MINERAL CONSTITUENTS OF SOME BROWSE PLANTS USED IN RUMINANT FEEDING IN SOUTHERN NIGERIA

Thirty-six browse plants found in natural pastures and used in small ruminant feeding were collected during the dry season. Their leaves were assayed for their contents of macro- and micro-mineral elements. Mg, Ca, Na, and K contents were noticeably high with overall mean levels of 0.35, 0.44, 0.059, 0.05 and 1.61% respectively while those for Zn, Fe, Mn and Cu were respectively 79.28, 803.39, 588.64 and 13.08 ppm in the leaves. Most of the leaves had moderate Ca: P ratios though Terminalia catapa leaves had as high a ratio as 42 while the overall mean Ca/P was 4.49 ± 1.19- P., Cu and Zn were however low in some of the browse leaves.