Vol 20, No 3 , 2019,: African Scientist

Bottled water is water that is intended for human consumption and is sealed in bottles or other container with no added ingredients except that it may contain safe and suitable fluorides. The sale and consumption of bottled water continues to grow rapidly in most places in Nigeria and is of public health concern. This study was designed to assess the physical and chemical quality of bottled drinking water sold in retail outlets in Benin City.

Lichens are widely used as biomonitors of environmental pollution, few lichen studies have been used to assess environmental quality in Nigeria. Managed and natural areas within Benin City metropolis and adjourning areas were investigated using lichen diversity to determine the ecosystem health status in four sites: Urban, Peri-urban, Rural and the Reference site. Lichen colonies obtained in triplicates per site from 10 mature trees (>60cm ghb) were collected and identified using standard keys and manuals.

The aim of this study is to ascertain the effects of different fat type ketogenic diet on some cardiovascular biomarkers in rat models. Forty Wistar albino rats were grouped into four and fed three types of ketogenic diets made of coconut oil, olive oil and butter. Ketogenic diets resulted in significant (P<0.05) weight loss. Total cholesterol in rats treated with coconut oil showed a significant increase (P<0.05) while those treated with butter showed a significant decrease (P<0.05) when compared with control.

This study was undertaken to investigate the ethanolic extract of the leaves and seeds of P. guineense for its bioactive constituents using GCMS. The shade dried and pulverized leaves and seed were extracted with absolute ethanol by Soxhlet method to obtain a crude extract. The GCMS analysis was carried out on a GC; Clarus 500 Perkin Elmer System comprising of a AOC-20i Autosampler interfaced with a Mass Spectrometer. The result shows different peaks indicating the presence of thirty and thirty-eight phytochemical compounds in the leaves and seeds respectively.