Comparative Effects of Selected Underutilized Wild Beans on Plasma Lipid Profile and Liver Function of Rats Fed with High Fats Diet

Dietary fiber content of beans is known to be responsible in the management of metabolic syndrome by delaying the degree of glucose as fuels, changing fat utilization, and controlling appetite through increased satiety, thus lowering the risk of cardiovascular diseases. Hence some selected varieties of underutilized wild beans were evaluated to study their anti-lipidemic effects. Prior to this, attempts were made to ferment the non-digestible fractions of the beans with fermentable micro-organism and the respective gut metabolites were determined. Lipid profile result carried out in the blood showed high density lipoprotein to be significantly (p ≤ 0.05) high in Pakala group with a value of 2.2 ± 0.02 compared to other groups. While for low density lipoprotein (LDL);rats with Otili in their diet had the highest LDL with a value of 0.45 ± 0.01. However, the group of rats fed with Feregede had the least cholesterol level compared to other groups of rats fed with respective wild beans and the negative control group. Otili had the highest ALP with value of 89 ± 1.0. Otili group also had a significant lower value of both aspartate amino transferase and alanine amino transferase. The biochemical indices reported in this study vary from one type of wild bean to another.

Interaction of Glucose/Sucrose Binding Lectin Isolated from Nigeria Wild Bean with <i>E. coli</i>and <i>S. aureus</i>

Lectin purified from wild underutilized local bean—Otili, Feregede, Pakalai was comparatively characterized and further evaluated for interaction with gastrointestinal bacteria—Esherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus. The purified lectin in all the bean samples showed to be glucose and sucrose binding. The hemagglutinating activity, was non selective to type of blood group (A, B, AB and O). Anti-bacteria interaction with Escherichia coli showed clear zone of inhibition of about 1.5 ± 0.5 mm with lectin from Feregede and Otili while there was slight agglutination with lectin from Pakala. Staphylococcus aureus sensitivity to the lectin extracted from Otili with clear zone of inhibition of 2.0 ± 0.5 mm was also found in the control chloramphenicol. However there was pronounced agglutination with lectin from Feregede and Pakala with Staphylococcus auereus. This may be a clear indication that lectin from local underutilized wild bean understudy will agglutinate and interact with a gram positive bacteria more than gram negative bacteria.

Serum Magnesium Levels in Healthy Pregnant and Pre-Eclamptic Patients <br/>—A Cross-Section Study

Background: Pre-eclampsia complicates 2% - 8% of pregnancies. Various efforts have been put forward for its prevention and treatment. Magnesium sulphate is presently the recommended drug for the prevention and treatment of eclampsia and severe pre-eclampsia. Objectives: The study aimed to compare the serum magnesium in a healthy pregnant women and pre-eclamptic women. It determined demographic characteristic of the study population and recommended the prophylactic usage of magnesium sulphate in pregnancy in our environment. Method: This was a prospective case control study comparing the serum magnesium levels in pre-eclampsia and normal pregnancy tertiary hospitals. The women who satisfied the inclusion criteria were recruited in the two groups (seventy five in the healthy pregnant women and seventy five in the pre-eclamptic women). The blood samples were collected and analysed for the serum magnesium and urine sample for urinalysis. Result: Total of 150 patients comprises 75 normal pregnant women and 75 cases of pre-eclampsia. The mean serum magnesium in the normal pregnant women was 0.73 (±0.14) mmol/L while in preeclampsia the level was 0.58 (±0.17) mmol/L. This is statistically significant (t = 6.120, p = 0.000). There was significance difference in the mean age of patients with pre-eclampsia and normal pregnancy. The mean parity in the pre-eclampsia was 0.80 and in the normal pregnancy was 1.4 and was statistically significant (t = 3.40, p value < 0.001). The mean gestational age of the pre-eclamptic was 36.5 weeks while it was 28.7 weeks in the normal pregnant women (t = 10.80, p = 0.000). Conclusion: The findings in this research work revealed that the pre-eclamptic women have lower serum magnesium level compared to the normal pregnant women, and it may therefore be interesting to do a larger multicenter study with possibility of developing a marker for this disease of theories.