Biotechnology Journal International

Antiplasmodial Activities and Biochemical Analysis of Cissampelos owariensis Leaf Extract

2026-08-20T13:04:42+00:00

This study evaluated the antiplasmodial activity and selected biochemical effects of aqueous leaf extract of Cissampelos owariensis in mice infected with Plasmodium berghei. The leaves were collected, authenticated, dried, powdered and extracted with distilled water. Acute oral toxicity was assessed before antiplasmodial testing. The extract was evaluated using three experimental models: the 4-day suppressive test, prophylactic test and curative test. Extract doses of 50, 100 and 200 mg/kg were administered orally, while normal saline served as the negative control. Chloroquine at 10 mg/kg was used as the positive control in the suppressive and curative models, and pyrimethamine at 1.2 mg/kg was used in the prophylactic model. Biochemical assays were conducted to assess catalase, superoxide dismutase, glutathione peroxidase and nitric oxide activities. Phytochemical screening indicated the presence of saponins, steroids, tannins, flavonoids and alkaloids. No mortality was observed during acute toxicity testing at doses up to 5000 mg/kg. In the suppressive test, the extract produced dose-related chemosuppression of 43.16%, 56.35% and 61.23% at 50, 100 and 200 mg/kg, respectively. In the prophylactic test, chemosuppression values were 22.59%, 55.48% and 79.23% at the same doses. In the curative model, parasitaemia decreased during treatment, with the 100 mg/kg dose showing marked reduction by day 7. The extract also influenced antioxidant and nitric oxide-related biochemical markers. These findings suggest that aqueous leaf extract of Cissampelos owariensis has antiplasmodial activity in the experimental mouse model and may contain bioactive constituents worthy of further pharmacological investigation.

Study of Complementary Feeding Practices: Analysis of Local Cereal Flour Consumption by Infants in the Haut-sassandra Region, Côte d’Ivoire

2026-08-21T11:20:51+00:00

Objective The study aims to analyse the consumption practices of locally produced cereal flours among infants in the Haut-Sassandra region of Côte d'Ivoire in order to assess their potential nutritional and health risks.

Study Design: A descriptive study combining a questionnaire-based survey with direct observations at flour points of sale.

Study Area and Duration: This study was conducted in the Haut-Sassandra Region, Côte d’Ivoire, specifically in the towns of Daloa, Vavoua, Issia, and Zoukougbeu. Fieldwork was conducted from 15 November to 18 July over the 2023–2024 study period.

Methodology: A survey was conducted among 500 breastfeeding mothers from four cities in the Haut-Sassandra region (Daloa, Vavoua, Issia, and Zoukougbeu) using a smartphone-administered questionnaire. The survey was complemented by direct observations at flour retail outlets.

Results: The results showed that the majority of the surveyed infants were between 6 and 12 months of age (50.4%), and that 95.2% of mothers reported having practised exclusive breastfeeding during the first six months of the child's life, before the introduction of complementary feeding. Maize flour (49.4%) and millet flour (41.2%) were the most commonly consumed complementary foods. Most mothers (66.4%) reported feeding these flours to their infants twice a day, with local markets being the main source of supply (99.6%). Nearly one in ten infants (8.8%) experienced digestive complications, including diarrhoea, vomiting, fever, and abdominal bloating, following the consumption of these flours. Infants aged 6–12 months were the most affected (9.12%). In addition, field observations revealed poor handling, packaging, and marketing conditions, which are conducive to microbiological contamination.

Conclusion: Locally produced artisanal cereal flours play a crucial role in ensuring food security among low-income households. However, their widespread use raises important public health concerns. These findings highlight the need for comprehensive microbiological and physicochemical characterisation of these products in order to better establish the relationship between consumption practices and the health disorders observed among infants.

Growth and Physiological Responses of the Ivorian Plantain Cultivar Affoto to Water Deficit and Rhizophagus irregularis Inoculation under Greenhouse Conditions

2026-08-24T11:00:50+00:00

Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) can improve plant performance under drought, but responses depend on host genotype, fungal isolate, symbiosis duration, and stress intensity. We evaluated whether Rhizophagus irregularis DAOM 197198 mitigated short-term water deficit in the Ivorian plantain cultivar Affoto under greenhouse conditions. Plants were assigned to a 2 × 3 factorial combination of inoculation (non-mycorrhizal or R. irregularis) and water supply (100% or 50% substrate water-holding capacity [WHC] replenished daily, or water withheld) for 14 days after a 14-day establishment period. Growth, organ water content, electrolyte leakage, chlorophyll index, leaf temperature, functional leaves, root colonization, and substrate spore density were quantified. Positive continuous responses were analyzed using log-linear models and heteroscedasticity-robust Type III tests; bounded responses were analyzed using beta or quasibinomial models. Water supply strongly affected total dry biomass (F_2,36= 34.44, P < 0.001), whereas inoculation (P = 0.789) and the inoculation × water-supply interaction (P = 0.946) did not. Mean total dry biomass declined from 104.73 g at 100% WHC to 70.58 g at 50% WHC and 36.02 g when water was withheld. Mycorrhizal growth responses were 2.7%, -4.1%, and -0.4%, respectively, and all 95% bootstrap confidence intervals included zero. AMF mitigation ratios were 0.935 (95% CI 0.627-1.422) at 50% WHC and 0.970 (0.626-1.572) under water withholding. Microscopy confirmed hyphae, vesicles, and arbuscules in inoculated roots, and none in controls; arbuscular abundance across the root system ranged from 24.92% to 31.81%. Thus, fungal establishment occurred, but inoculation did not detectably alter drought-associated biomass loss. Water deficit also reduced tissue hydration, growth dimensions, SPAD, and functional leaf proportion while increasing electrolyte leakage and leaf temperature. For the tested cultivar-isolate combination, following a short establishment period and under severe combined soil-water and atmospheric stress, R. irregularis conferred no detectable mitigation of biomass.

Antibiotic Resistance in Citrobacter, Isolated in Elderly Patients with Urinary Tract Infections in the Abidjan District, Ivory Coast

2026-08-29T11:50:51+00:00

Background: Urinary tract infections are common among older adults, and the emergence of antibiotic-resistant Citrobacter spp. complicates therapeutic management.

Aims: The objective of this study was to characterise antibiotic resistance genes in Citrobacter isolates from elderly patients presenting with urinary tract infections.

Study Design: This was a retrospective study.

Place and Duration of Study: The study was conducted at the Bacteriology and Virology Laboratory of the Pasteur Institute, Abidjan, Ivory Coast, from February 2023 to March 2024.

Methodology: A retrospective study was conducted using 47 clinical Citrobacter isolates collected at the Institut Pasteur de Côte d’Ivoire. Antimicrobial susceptibility was assessed by disc diffusion, extended-spectrum β-lactamase production was evaluated using a double-disc synergy test, and polymerase chain reaction was used to detect blaTEM, blaSHV, and blaCTX-M-1 genes.

Results: Citrobacter strains were isolated from 59.57% of the urine samples. Two species of Citrobacter were identified: Citrobacter freundii 85% (40/47) and Citrobacter koseri 15% (7/47). Generally, a low resistance rate (10.71%) was observed among the Citrobacter isolates in the presence of kanamycin. However, they exhibited a high resistance rate of 89.36% (42/47) to cefixime. Except for amikacin and kanamycin, the susceptibility profile of Citrobacter freundii showed resistance rates of 100% to both cefixime and aztreonam. Regarding Citrobacter koseri, a high resistance rate of 87.5% (35/40) was observed for cefixime, whereas a low resistance rate of 10.63% (5/47) was observed for kanamycin. In this study, the prevalence of Citrobacter strains producing extended-spectrum β-lactamases (ESBL) was 78.72% (37/47). Among the 47 strains, 14.9% (7/47) harbored the bla_CTX-M-1 gene, 12.77% (6/47) carried the bla_TEM gene, and 4.26% (2/47) possessed the bla_SHV gene.

Conclusion: The high resistance rates obtained compromise treatment efficacy. Consequently, there is an urgent need to implement surveillance strategies and develop new therapeutic alternatives to address this growing public health threat.

Bacteriological and Physicochemical Analyses of Ogi Fermented from Zea mays, Sorghum bicolor and Pennisetum glaucum Cereals

2026-08-31T09:39:24+00:00

The study assessed the bacteriological and physicochemical parameters during the fermentation of ogi from Zea mays, Sorghum bicolor and Pennisetum glaucum cereals. Ogi was produced from white Zea mays, yellow Zea mays, Sorghum bicolor and Pennisetum glaucum cereals and was allowed to ferment by steeping in distilled water for four (4) days at a temperature of 28 ºC. The effluents generated from the steeping water were collected daily for physicochemical (pH, total titratable acidity and temperature) and bacteriological (total heterotrophic bacterial count and total lactic acid bacterial count) analyses. After the fermentation process, the steeped grains were wet milled, sieved, allowed to sediment and decanted to produce the semi-solid ogi samples. The study revealed a decrease in pH from 6.83 to 4.40, an increase in total titratable acidity from 0.07 to 1.85g/L and an increase in temperature from 26.33 to 31.33ºC. There was an increase in the total heterotrophic bacterial count from 2.5×10⁵ to 63.5×10⁹ and in the total lactic acid bacterial count from 5.0×10³ to 98.5×10⁸ during fermentation. Bacteria belonging to the genera Enterobacter, Erysipelothrix, Pediococcus, Weisella, Veillonella, Proteus and Bacillus were present during the fermentation of ogi from white and yellow Zea mays, Sorghum bicolor and Pennisetum glaucum cereals. The study revealed high microbial populations, the presence of lactic acid bacteria and stable physicochemical conditions during the fermentation of white and yellow Zea mays, Sorghum bicolor and Pennisetum glaucum cereals to ogi.

Molecular and Evolutionary Characterization of Wild Yeast Isolates from Banana Fruit and Honey Relative to a Commercial Wine Yeast using Statistical Phylogenetic Tools

2026-09-11T10:19:01+00:00

Wild yeast isolates from banana fruit and honey were compared with a commercial wine yeast using partial ITS1–5.8S–ITS2 sequences and statistical phylogenetic analyses in MEGA 12. Five sequences representing banana isolates B7 and B10, honey isolates H4 and H7, and commercial yeast CY were evaluated for BLASTN affinity, evolutionary divergence, nucleotide composition, substitution-pattern homogeneity, neutrality statistics and relative-time relationships. BLASTN provisionally associated B7, B10, H4 and CY with Candida tropicalis and H7 with Clavispora lusitaniae; however, sequence identities of 77.6–95.0% were below the stated ITS thresholds for reliable species- and genus-level assignment. H4 and B10 showed the closest relationship, with divergence of 0.011 ± 0.005 substitutions per site, 100% bootstrap support and identical EcoRI profiles. The remaining pairwise distances ranged from 0.401 to 0.690 substitutions per site. The alignment was AT-rich (58.47%) and strongly transition-biased (R = 17.255), while disparity-index testing did not detect significant substitution-pattern heterogeneity among sequence pairs. Tajima’s D was 0.302 and is interpreted descriptively because the alignment spans more than one taxonomic group and includes only five sequences. Overall, the analyses support provisional molecular characterisation of the isolates but do not provide secure species-level identification. Re-verification of sequence quality and multilocus analysis are therefore required before definitive taxonomic interpretation.

Virus-induced Genome Editing in Plants: Viral Vector Biology, Germline Access and the Evidence Base for Heritable, Transgene-Free Crop Improvement

2026-08-31T11:49:12+00:00

Delivery, rather than nuclease chemistry, now sets the practical limit on plant genome editing. Conventional delivery depends on tissue culture and stable transformation, which remain slow, genotype-dependent and unavailable for most cultivated germplasm. Plant viruses offer an alternative because they replicate to high copy number, move systemically and can carry heterologous sequences into cells that no transformation protocol reaches. Virus-induced genome editing exploits this behaviour, and the field has moved within a decade from transient somatic mutagenesis in a model tobacco to heritable, transgene-free mutations in hexaploid bread wheat. This critical review evaluates the strength and the limits of that evidence. Vector chassis are compared on the properties that actually determine outcome, namely cargo capacity, insert stability, host range, movement behaviour and access to reproductive tissue, rather than on reported somatic editing percentages, which are shown to be poor predictors of germline transmission. The central unresolved problem is identified as the disjunction between efficient editing in infected somatic tissue and rare, stochastic entry of editing reagents into cells that give rise to gametes. Three engineering responses to that problem, namely fusion of guide RNAs to mobile RNA motifs, control of nuclease expression through meristem-competent promoters, and exploitation of axillary or adventitious growth points, are assessed against the evidence for each. Reagent miniaturisation, guide array design and virus-delivered precision editing are examined as partial solutions to the cargo constraint. Recurrent weaknesses in the literature are documented, including reliance on visible reporter loci, small progeny samples, inconsistent definitions of editing efficiency, near-absence of independent replication and the complete absence of field evaluation. The claim that virus-derived products are transgene-free is examined against the regulatory frameworks that will govern them, and the biosafety implications of releasing engineered, potentially insect-transmissible vectors are considered. Prioritised research directions are proposed, emphasising standardised reporting of progeny-level outcomes, biocontained vector design, and genotype-spanning validation in elite crop backgrounds.

Biofuel Production from Microalgae: A Critical Update on Cultivation, Conversion, System Integration and Commercial Readiness

2026-09-02T12:36:51+00:00

Microalgae remain scientifically compelling biofuel feedstocks because they can convert light and carbon into chemically diverse biomass without an intrinsic requirement for fertile agricultural land, while some production systems can also use saline water, wastewater nutrients and concentrated carbon dioxide streams. Yet the field has not translated laboratory demonstrations into routine production of competitively priced, low-carbon commodity fuels. This critical narrative review evaluates why that gap persists and how the research agenda has changed. Literature published from 1 January 2015 to 22 June 2026 was examined, with earlier seminal studies retained where necessary to establish mechanisms, process benchmarks and the evolution of sustainability arguments. Evidence was synthesised across strain physiology and engineering, cultivation, harvesting and dewatering, lipid-based biodiesel, hydrothermal liquefaction, pyrolysis, anaerobic digestion, carbohydrate-derived fuels, wastewater and carbon integration, techno-economics and life-cycle assessment. The central finding is that microalgal fuel performance is governed by cross-stage interactions rather than by a single favourable trait such as lipid content. Stress-induced lipid accumulation can reduce biomass productivity; controlled photobioreactors can improve culture performance while increasing capital and energy burdens; and downstream choices determine whether dilute wet biomass becomes an energetic liability or a useful feedstock. Hydrothermal liquefaction is particularly compatible with wet whole biomass, whereas conventional biodiesel benefits from mature chemistry but is constrained by selective lipid recovery and drying or extraction requirements. Wastewater, nutrient recycling, carbon utilisation and coproduct valorisation can improve system performance, but benefits are strongly context dependent and may be overstated when environmental-service credits or high-value coproduct revenues are assumed without scale-consistent markets. Pilot-informed life-cycle studies continue to show substantial sensitivity to electricity supply, infrastructure, productivity, nutrient source, dewatering and allocation choices. The most defensible near-term direction is therefore not a universal algal-fuel process, but location-specific, integrated biorefineries in which fuel production is co-designed with nutrient recovery, carbon management and realistic coproduct pathways. Progress towards commercial relevance requires continuous outdoor validation, harmonised assessment, wet-processing strategies and evidence that integrated gains persist at scale.