₦airaland Forum

Well PM COLLEGE is coming up soon with a masters program in project management here in Nigeria.

You can find out more information from there office in lekki.

ABUJA—THE Presidency is considering six names as likely replacement for Professor Maurice Iwu as Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, Vanguard can authoritatively reveal.

According to sources in the Presidency, names being considered as likely replacement for Iwu include Prof. Attahiru Jega, a former president of the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, Dr. Jibrin Ibrahim, rtd.Major-General Ishola Williams, president of Transparency Nigeria, Prof Dora Akunyili, immediate past Information and Communications Minister, Col. Abubakar Umar, former Military Administrator of Kaduna State, Mr. Olisa Agbakoba, SAN, and former Nigeria Bar Association, NBA president.

Presidency sources said that Acting President Goodluck Jonathan was bent on leaving a legacy in Nigeria’s political history, and as such regards the civil society a veritable ally that would credibly contribute towards realizing his ambition.

Jega would be remembered for the pivotal role he played in forcing the government of General Ibrahim Babangida to improve the welfare of university teachers and properly recognize their role in nation building. Williams’name is synonymous with abhorence for corruption, hence he stands out as probably the only Army General who is not associated with questionable wealth.

Ibrahim is Director of the Centre for Democracy and Development, CDD, a non-governmental organization in Abuja, and is no less known than the others for his Civil Society activities.

Agbakoba is regarded generally as an icon in human rights activities, having founded and run the foremost civil society group, the Civil Liberties Organisation, CLO. When the military had the nation in its stranglehold, Agbakoba stood out, deploying his knowledge of law in the fight against arbitrariness of the military. During that era, the CLO was the unofficial mouthpiece of the citizenry.

Three of the names were members of the President Umaru Yar’Adua 22-member Electoral Reform Panel, which in keeping with Yar’Adua’s seven-point agenda was inaugurated to review the electoral system to ensure that subsequent elections are credible to meet international standards. The panel had submitted its report to Yar’ Adua before the President took ill.

Vanguard can authoritatively reveal that the short-listing of the names, followed last week’s rejection of one of the key recommendations of the Uwais Committee, that the National Judicial Council, NJC, should be responsible for the selection of the chairman of INEC, to insulate the occupier of the position from undue political and partisan influence.

The Senate Committee on Constitution Review, had presented a revised constitution on the Senate floor last Thursday, rejecting the appointment of INEC chairman by the NJC.

The Senate’s review committee, headed by the Deputy Senate President, Senator Ike Ekweremadu, however, recommended that INEC and the National Assembly should be fully autonomous hence placing them on the first-line charge of the consolidated revenue fund.

The Senate report, however, indicated that INEC’s chairman and members of the board of the commission “shall not be members of any political party.”

Other recommendations of the Senate committee include that all election-related cases must be disposed of within 60 days of the date of filing such cases.

According to the committee, in the case of annulled elections, the eventual winner must have fresh tenure to start from the date of swearing-in, as the tenure of four years for executives at the federal and state level, was left intact.

The committee had further recommended that elections to the office of President shall be held on a date not earlier than 210 days and 80 days before expiration of the term of the last holder of that office.

The committee also recommended that all political parties must have their head offices in Abuja and each must always submit detailed annual statement and analysis of its sources of funds and other assets, together with a similar statement of expenditure in such form as the commission may require.

Posted by: dezzygal
Insert Quote
i hv alwaz asked ma self y do pple, most especially gals find it hard i mean damn hard to forget their first luv ,d first luv thing is like a virus dat has eaten deep into some1.Is there any cure for it? if dere is, honestly i wuld luv to hv one.

i think the reason is that that is the very first time u are feeling loved. imagine how u felt the first time u are been burnt by fire.

Have u not heard the slang "knowledge is power". this guys have the knowledge to solve our perceived problem the issue is that how do one verify the claims and secondly i think nothing should be free but all the about one pays is the question here.

there is nothing absolutely wrong in a lady asking a man out or making her feelings know to the man. but the word of caution here is the lady in question has to be discrete about it so that a wrong signal is not sent to the man.

one love

what ever you do is left to you but make sure you do not abort the unborn child. What ever you like do but do not kill the unborn child after you should have taught of the consequences in the first place.

thanks but no thanks

this is absolute the wrong place to do this and to make matter worse mention the name. i know of gtconnect and is up and running 24/7 are u sure that is the number you are trying to call. Perhaps that could be a machine error have you tried checking a second time.

THIS IS ABSOLUTELY UNACCEPTABLE.

i have gotten my etisalat sim.
u can call me
0809VETERAN
mean the serve is out of this world
they are able to combine of the deficiencies of other operators into a competence area

well it is nice to add that a whole lots of jobs are available here in Nigeria but we do not have the required skill set to man such responsibility. so you wouldn't blame them because they feel a Nigerian graduate is best fix for a truck driver.

go to face book and do this kind of business not in a job forum like this

come to think of it IYAWO. you are seeking for a job and you are paying someone else salary. well e bi like say your account balance fat well well other wise run even with your hands inclusive if u can my sister

know that you know don't be left out. catch up on your dreams bro.

don't be left out it is free!

there is going to be a job fair at the old national stadium surulere lagos on the 18th of OCTOBER 2008.
DON'T BE TOLD AND NEVA MISS THE OPPURTUNITY.
TIME: 9:00 AM

Is this a case of different stroke for different folks. well things like this are bound to happen and besides browsing at peak or office period especially with a cdma table phone problems or tails like this abound to be heard. however, that is not to say that starcomms is exonerated from poor service delivery. nonetheless, u must give it to IZAP is fast and out of this world in a click.

HEY FUTOITES HOPE U ARE NOT PAINING ANYTHING EVIL. HOW IS AMADUKA, ENGR EZE, ENGR ONWUKA AND WHAT HAVE YOU.
AM A FUTOITIES EMERITUS. U NO WHAT I MEAN.

nothing do abi na when krokro do am na him u go no say nothing doam

tell am. the rite question u should be asking is : are u ready to get married right away. if then u can propose her hand in marriage but start shao by asking her out

well for any man that is sensitive to his wife or girl friend feeling. once u are able to find out that your honey is seeing her period at any particular month u can calculate the rest of it from there. i.e the subsequent red alerts.

these are all you need

You can be rest asure that the purported brother will be disfellowship
on like what is obtainable in other religious sect. where such crimes goes unpurnished.

wonder shall neva cease fellow nigerian ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

How ever kill by the sword will also die by the sword
A word is enough for the wise


go ask abacha how far my brother

yea tell dem

for me the war against female circumcission should be taken to the rural area with serious
agreesion.
for most chidren given birth to in the cities are not realy circumcise. the ignorance of the dangers are prodominate in the rural area

I have spent a whole lot of time real . My brothers real time reading up most post in this forum. but it beat me that in a country of 140 million plus someone will tell me he or she is lonely does it really work that way. Is that the 140 million are not just good enough or what.

what is your take on this?

Extract from the

SCIENTISTS have discovered how walnut trees respond to stress, cancer and heart condition by producing significant amounts of a chemical form of aspirin, antioxidants and essential fatty acids. They have also found that extracts of walnut tree are effective anti-microbial agents, could be used to boost sperm count, fertility, menstrual flow, treat uterine fibroids, and bring relieve in hiccups.

Botanically called Tetracarpidium conophorum or Plukenetia conophora, African walnut belongs to the family Euphorbiaceae. In Nigeria, it is called Asala or Awusa in Yoruba; Ukpa in Ibo; and Okhue or Okwe in Edo.

For years, scientists have known that plants in a laboratory may produce methyl salicylate, which is a chemical form of acetylsalicylic acid, or aspirin. But researchers had never before detected methyl salicylate in an ecosystem or verified that plants emit the chemical in significant quantities into the atmosphere.

The team of scientists reported its findings last week in the journal Biogeoscience. The research, was funded by the United States National Science Foundation (NSF), the sponsors of the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR).

The finding, by scientists at NCAR in Boulder, Colorado, United States, opens up new avenues of research into the behaviour of plants and their impacts on air quality, and also has the potential to give farmers an early warning signal about crops that are failing.

NCAR scientist Thomas Karl, who led the study said: "Unlike humans, who are advised to take aspirin as a fever suppressant, plants have the ability to produce their own mix of aspirin-like chemicals, triggering the formation of proteins that boost their biochemical defenses and reduce injury.

"Our measurements show that significant amounts of the chemical can be detected in the atmosphere as plants respond to drought, unseasonable temperatures, or other stresses."

According to the Medicinal Plants of Nigeria- South West Nigeria Volume 1 compiled and published by Nigeria Natural Medicine Development Agency (NNMDA), Victoria Island, Lagos, walnut seeds are used in the treatment of fibroid. The leaf juice is drunk to mitigate prolonged and /or constant hiccups. Seeds are chewed to improve sperm count in men. The leaf juice is used to improve fertility in women and also to regulate menstrual flow.

In southern Nigerian ethnomedicine, African walnut is used as a male fertility agent and the leaves are used for the treatment of dysentery and to improve fertility in males. The oil from the nut has found use in the formulation of wood varnish, stand oil, vulcanised oil for rubber and leather substitute. Most of the studies on the plant have been on the nutritive value of the seeds, which is a snack and delicacy.

According to The Useful Plants of Tropical West Africa by H. M. Burkill, the plant is a woody liane to over 30 metres long, of the bushy savanna. The leaves are considered a headache cure in Southern Nigeria, and have magical use to wash children to cause their mothers to conceive, the Igbo name meaning babies call babies. In Gabon, consumption of the seeds by husbands of wives already pregnant is believed to mitigate the risk of miscarriage. Nigerian material has been screened for alkaloids, a trace of which is recorded in the bark.

The fruit is a capsule six to 10 centimetres long by three to 11 centimetres wide containing sub-globular seeds two to 2.5 centimetres long with a thin brown shell resembling the temperate walnut, hence the English name.

The seed kernel is edible. Eaten raw they have a bitter flavour not unlike the kola nut and are considered to be tonic and aphrodisiac. More usually the kernels are roasted and eaten in the general diet, or added to cakes. The kernels are oil-bearing yielding 48 to 60 per cent of a light golden coloured oil with a taste resembling linseed oil.

Composition is linolenic acid 64 per cent, palmitic and stearic acids 15 per cent, oleic acid 11 per cent and linoleic acid 10 per cent. This is conophor oil, or in the paint and varnish trade awusa or n'gart. It is edible and could be used in food preparations. It is unsuitable for soap-manufacture, and being quick drying it is certainly usable in the paint industry provided there is a certain supply and the kernels are free from excessive free fatty acids. Fresh oil has an iodine value of 190 which is excellent for a drying oil, but the seeds do not store well and deterioration caused by enzymatic action needs to be prevented at the time of collection by heat-treatment.

The oil has medicinal use in Nigeria in massages. The cake left after expression of the oil contains 45 per cent protein. It has local uses for food and is obviously a good source of protein. It can safely be fed to stock. The plant, presumably the kernel, is a good source of vitamins.

Results of a Nigerian study have shown that Tetracarpidium conophorum has a high potential as an anti-microbial medicinal plant. It is reported to be useful in the folklore in the treatment of dysentery. This investigation therefore justifies its ethno-medical use, having displayed activities with the human pathogenic microorganisms that were used in this study.

Following the need for development of newer anti-microbial chemotherapeutic agents because there is increasing treatment failure rates of microbial infections due to drug-resistant antibiotics, the most active fraction in the current study, the ethyl acetate fraction of the leaf methanol extract, has a very high potential as a source for drug discovery for anti-microbial agents.

The study, 'anti-microbial potential of extracts and fractions of the African walnut - Tetracarpidium conophorum' was published in African Journal of Biotechnology by E. O. Ajaiyeoba and D. A. Fadare of the Department of Pharmacognosy, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria.

Extracts and fractions were tested against four clinical strains of two Gram positive, two Gram negative bacteria and two of fungi. They exhibited concentration-dependent anti-microbial properties. The extracts displayed higher activities to the Gram positive organisms.

Gram positive bacteria includes many well-known genera such as Bacillus, Listeria, Staphylococcus, Streptococcus, Enterococcus, and Clostridium.

Many species of Gram-negative bacteria are pathogenic, meaning they can cause disease in a host organism. The proteobacteria are a major group of Gram-negative bacteria, including Escherichia coli, Salmonella, and other Enterobacteriaceae, Pseudomonas, Moraxella, Helicobacter, Stenotrophomonas, Bdellovibrio, acetic acid bacteria, Legionella and alpha-proteobacteria as Wolbachia and many others. Other notable groups of Gram-negative bacteria include the cyanobacteria, spirochaetes, green sulfur and green non-sulfur bacteria.

Medically relevant Gram-negative cocci include three organisms, which cause a sexually transmitted disease (Neisseria gonorrhoeae), a meningitis (Neisseria meningitidis), and respiratory symptoms (Moraxella catarrhalis).

Medically relevant Gram-negative bacilli include a multitude of species. Some of them primarily cause respiratory problems (Hemophilus influenzae, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Legionella pneumophila, Pseudomonas aeruginosa), primarily urinary problems (Escherichia coli, Proteus mirabilis, Enterobacter cloacae, Serratia marcescens), and primarily gastrointestinal problems (Helicobacter pylori, Salmonella enteritidis, Salmonella typhi).

Gram negative bacteria associated with nosocomial infections include Acinetobacter baumanii, which cause bacteremia, secondary meningitis, and ventilator-associated pneumonia in intensive care units of hospital establishments.

Preliminary phytochemical screening of the plant parts for secondary metabolites, showed the presence of saponins, alkaloids, tannins and anthraquinones in the plant samples. The concentration of these metabolites was higher in the leaves. Cardiac glycosides were not detected in leaf, stem bark, roots and kernel of T. conophorum. Percentage yields of extracts were determined after removal of solvents respectively.

The root extract displayed intrinsic antibacterial properties. Of the six microorganisms used, Staphylococus aureus was most sensitive to the root and stem bark extracts. Both extracts did not show any anti-fungal property in the current study. The leaf extract exhibited the highest activities with all the micro-organisms investigated. The leaf extract also showed anti-fungal properties, inhibiting the growth of the Aspergillus niger, a normally resistant mold, much more than the reference drug, tioconazole.

The kernel did not show any activity with the microorganisms used in this study. The hexane, chloroform, ethyl acetate and methanol fractions of the leaf extracts displayed good anti-microbial activities, which were concentration-dependent. Pseudomomas aeruginosa and Candida albicans were most sensitive to the extracts. The most sensitive bacteria to the four fractions were Pseudomonas aeruginosa. The ethyl acetate fraction was the most active extract, while the hexane fraction showed least activity.

The fractions also inhibited the growth of the two fungi used in the study. The yeast, Candida albicans and the mold, Aspergilus niger, were inhibited even at a concentration of 10 mg/ml, comparable to tioconazole. In the antimicrobial analyses, gentamycin was included as reference antibacterial compound, tioconazole as the reference for anti-fungal. Methanol was included in the experiments as a negative control and it did not display any anti-microbial activity as shown in.

The edible part of the plant, the kernel did not show any anti-microbial property in the assay. However, T. comophorum is an economic plant and it is widely cultivated for production of the nuts, which are delicacies snack food.

Pseudomonas aeruginosa is an important pathogen causing a wide range of acute and chronic infections. Candida albicans, a fungus, lives in the human mouth and gastrointestinal tract. Overgrowth results in candidiasis. Candidiasis is often observed in immunocompromised individuals such as Human Immuno-deficiency Virus (HIV)-positive patients. Candidiasis also may occur in the blood and in the genital tract. Candidiasis, also known as "thrush", is a common condition, which is usually easily cured in people who are not immuno-compromised.

Researchers have also shown that eating snack-sized quantities of walnuts could slow the growth of cancer. The study by Dr. Elaine Hardman of Marshall's Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine, near Huntington New York, United States, determined that mice that got part of their calories by eating walnuts had slower breast cancer growth, found that cancer in the walnut-fed group took twice as long to double in size as cancer in the control group.

The study published in the peer-reviewed journal, Nutrition and Cancer, made the mice ate a diet in which 18.5 per cent of the daily calories - the equivalent of two servings for humans - came from walnuts.

Walnuts have at least three components that could account for their cancer-slowing effect. They are high in Omega-3 fatty acids, which have been shown to slow cancer growth. They also include antioxidants and components called phytosterols, both of which have shown cancer-slowing effects in other studies.

EXTRACT FROM THE GUARDIAN NEWSPAPER
[url=http://guardiannewsngr.com/natural_health/article01//indexn2_html?pdate=091008&ptitle=Walnut as panacea for stress, infections, infertility]guardiannewsngr.com/natural_health/article01//indexn2_html?pdate=091008&ptitle=Walnut as panacea for stress, infections, infertility[/url]

SCIENTISTS have discovered how walnut trees respond to stress, cancer and heart condition by producing significant amounts of a chemical form of aspirin, antioxidants and essential fatty acids. They have also found that extracts of walnut tree are effective anti-microbial agents, could be used to boost sperm count, fertility, menstrual flow, treat uterine fibroids, and bring relieve in hiccups.

Botanically called Tetracarpidium conophorum or Plukenetia conophora, African walnut belongs to the family Euphorbiaceae. In Nigeria, it is called Asala or Awusa in Yoruba; Ukpa in Ibo; and Okhue or Okwe in Edo.

For years, scientists have known that plants in a laboratory may produce methyl salicylate, which is a chemical form of acetylsalicylic acid, or aspirin. But researchers had never before detected methyl salicylate in an ecosystem or verified that plants emit the chemical in significant quantities into the atmosphere.

The team of scientists reported its findings last week in the journal Biogeoscience. The research, was funded by the United States National Science Foundation (NSF), the sponsors of the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR).

The finding, by scientists at NCAR in Boulder, Colorado, United States, opens up new avenues of research into the behaviour of plants and their impacts on air quality, and also has the potential to give farmers an early warning signal about crops that are failing.

NCAR scientist Thomas Karl, who led the study said: "Unlike humans, who are advised to take aspirin as a fever suppressant, plants have the ability to produce their own mix of aspirin-like chemicals, triggering the formation of proteins that boost their biochemical defenses and reduce injury.

"Our measurements show that significant amounts of the chemical can be detected in the atmosphere as plants respond to drought, unseasonable temperatures, or other stresses."

According to the Medicinal Plants of Nigeria- South West Nigeria Volume 1 compiled and published by Nigeria Natural Medicine Development Agency (NNMDA), Victoria Island, Lagos, walnut seeds are used in the treatment of fibroid. The leaf juice is drunk to mitigate prolonged and /or constant hiccups. Seeds are chewed to improve sperm count in men. The leaf juice is used to improve fertility in women and also to regulate menstrual flow.

In southern Nigerian ethnomedicine, African walnut is used as a male fertility agent and the leaves are used for the treatment of dysentery and to improve fertility in males. The oil from the nut has found use in the formulation of wood varnish, stand oil, vulcanised oil for rubber and leather substitute. Most of the studies on the plant have been on the nutritive value of the seeds, which is a snack and delicacy.

According to The Useful Plants of Tropical West Africa by H. M. Burkill, the plant is a woody liane to over 30 metres long, of the bushy savanna. The leaves are considered a headache cure in Southern Nigeria, and have magical use to wash children to cause their mothers to conceive, the Igbo name meaning babies call babies. In Gabon, consumption of the seeds by husbands of wives already pregnant is believed to mitigate the risk of miscarriage. Nigerian material has been screened for alkaloids, a trace of which is recorded in the bark.

The fruit is a capsule six to 10 centimetres long by three to 11 centimetres wide containing sub-globular seeds two to 2.5 centimetres long with a thin brown shell resembling the temperate walnut, hence the English name.

The seed kernel is edible. Eaten raw they have a bitter flavour not unlike the kola nut and are considered to be tonic and aphrodisiac. More usually the kernels are roasted and eaten in the general diet, or added to cakes. The kernels are oil-bearing yielding 48 to 60 per cent of a light golden coloured oil with a taste resembling linseed oil.

Composition is linolenic acid 64 per cent, palmitic and stearic acids 15 per cent, oleic acid 11 per cent and linoleic acid 10 per cent. This is conophor oil, or in the paint and varnish trade awusa or n'gart. It is edible and could be used in food preparations. It is unsuitable for soap-manufacture, and being quick drying it is certainly usable in the paint industry provided there is a certain supply and the kernels are free from excessive free fatty acids. Fresh oil has an iodine value of 190 which is excellent for a drying oil, but the seeds do not store well and deterioration caused by enzymatic action needs to be prevented at the time of collection by heat-treatment.

The oil has medicinal use in Nigeria in massages. The cake left after expression of the oil contains 45 per cent protein. It has local uses for food and is obviously a good source of protein. It can safely be fed to stock. The plant, presumably the kernel, is a good source of vitamins.

Results of a Nigerian study have shown that Tetracarpidium conophorum has a high potential as an anti-microbial medicinal plant. It is reported to be useful in the folklore in the treatment of dysentery. This investigation therefore justifies its ethno-medical use, having displayed activities with the human pathogenic microorganisms that were used in this study.

Following the need for development of newer anti-microbial chemotherapeutic agents because there is increasing treatment failure rates of microbial infections due to drug-resistant antibiotics, the most active fraction in the current study, the ethyl acetate fraction of the leaf methanol extract, has a very high potential as a source for drug discovery for anti-microbial agents.

The study, 'anti-microbial potential of extracts and fractions of the African walnut - Tetracarpidium conophorum' was published in African Journal of Biotechnology by E. O. Ajaiyeoba and D. A. Fadare of the Department of Pharmacognosy, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria.

Extracts and fractions were tested against four clinical strains of two Gram positive, two Gram negative bacteria and two of fungi. They exhibited concentration-dependent anti-microbial properties. The extracts displayed higher activities to the Gram positive organisms.

Gram positive bacteria includes many well-known genera such as Bacillus, Listeria, Staphylococcus, Streptococcus, Enterococcus, and Clostridium.

Many species of Gram-negative bacteria are pathogenic, meaning they can cause disease in a host organism. The proteobacteria are a major group of Gram-negative bacteria, including Escherichia coli, Salmonella, and other Enterobacteriaceae, Pseudomonas, Moraxella, Helicobacter, Stenotrophomonas, Bdellovibrio, acetic acid bacteria, Legionella and alpha-proteobacteria as Wolbachia and many others. Other notable groups of Gram-negative bacteria include the cyanobacteria, spirochaetes, green sulfur and green non-sulfur bacteria.

Medically relevant Gram-negative cocci include three organisms, which cause a sexually transmitted disease (Neisseria gonorrhoeae), a meningitis (Neisseria meningitidis), and respiratory symptoms (Moraxella catarrhalis).

Medically relevant Gram-negative bacilli include a multitude of species. Some of them primarily cause respiratory problems (Hemophilus influenzae, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Legionella pneumophila, Pseudomonas aeruginosa), primarily urinary problems (Escherichia coli, Proteus mirabilis, Enterobacter cloacae, Serratia marcescens), and primarily gastrointestinal problems (Helicobacter pylori, Salmonella enteritidis, Salmonella typhi).

Gram negative bacteria associated with nosocomial infections include Acinetobacter baumanii, which cause bacteremia, secondary meningitis, and ventilator-associated pneumonia in intensive care units of hospital establishments.

Preliminary phytochemical screening of the plant parts for secondary metabolites, showed the presence of saponins, alkaloids, tannins and anthraquinones in the plant samples. The concentration of these metabolites was higher in the leaves. Cardiac glycosides were not detected in leaf, stem bark, roots and kernel of T. conophorum. Percentage yields of extracts were determined after removal of solvents respectively.

The root extract displayed intrinsic antibacterial properties. Of the six microorganisms used, Staphylococus aureus was most sensitive to the root and stem bark extracts. Both extracts did not show any anti-fungal property in the current study. The leaf extract exhibited the highest activities with all the micro-organisms investigated. The leaf extract also showed anti-fungal properties, inhibiting the growth of the Aspergillus niger, a normally resistant mold, much more than the reference drug, tioconazole.

The kernel did not show any activity with the microorganisms used in this study. The hexane, chloroform, ethyl acetate and methanol fractions of the leaf extracts displayed good anti-microbial activities, which were concentration-dependent. Pseudomomas aeruginosa and Candida albicans were most sensitive to the extracts. The most sensitive bacteria to the four fractions were Pseudomonas aeruginosa. The ethyl acetate fraction was the most active extract, while the hexane fraction showed least activity.

The fractions also inhibited the growth of the two fungi used in the study. The yeast, Candida albicans and the mold, Aspergilus niger, were inhibited even at a concentration of 10 mg/ml, comparable to tioconazole. In the antimicrobial analyses, gentamycin was included as reference antibacterial compound, tioconazole as the reference for anti-fungal. Methanol was included in the experiments as a negative control and it did not display any anti-microbial activity as shown in.

The edible part of the plant, the kernel did not show any anti-microbial property in the assay. However, T. comophorum is an economic plant and it is widely cultivated for production of the nuts, which are delicacies snack food.

Pseudomonas aeruginosa is an important pathogen causing a wide range of acute and chronic infections. Candida albicans, a fungus, lives in the human mouth and gastrointestinal tract. Overgrowth results in candidiasis. Candidiasis is often observed in immunocompromised individuals such as Human Immuno-deficiency Virus (HIV)-positive patients. Candidiasis also may occur in the blood and in the genital tract. Candidiasis, also known as "thrush", is a common condition, which is usually easily cured in people who are not immuno-compromised.

Researchers have also shown that eating snack-sized quantities of walnuts could slow the growth of cancer. The study by Dr. Elaine Hardman of Marshall's Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine, near Huntington New York, United States, determined that mice that got part of their calories by eating walnuts had slower breast cancer growth, found that cancer in the walnut-fed group took twice as long to double in size as cancer in the control group.

The study published in the peer-reviewed journal, Nutrition and Cancer, made the mice ate a diet in which 18.5 per cent of the daily calories - the equivalent of two servings for humans - came from walnuts.

Walnuts have at least three components that could account for their cancer-slowing effect. They are high in Omega-3 fatty acids, which have been shown to slow cancer growth. They also include antioxidants and components called phytosterols, both of which have shown cancer-slowing effects in other studies.

Extrate from The Guardian Newspaper
[url=http://guardiannewsngr.com/news/article04//indexn2_html?pdate=111008&ptitle=CBN May Lose Control Of Banks]guardiannewsngr.com/news/article04//indexn2_html?pdate=111008&ptitle=CBN May Lose Control Of Banks[/url]

ANOTHER restructuring exercise looms in the banking and financial sector. In the forthcoming change, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) may not be spared.

Going by feelers from the Senate Committee on Banking, Insurance and Other Financial Institutions, the CBN may cease to be a regulator of the industry.

A new umpire that will even oversee the activities of the apex bank is being considered by the Upper House. In fact, the Senate plans to strip the CBN of its regulatory powers to enable it concentrate on other key functions. The proposed regulatory body, The Guardian learned will be similar to the United Kingdom's Financial Standard Authority (FSA).

In an interview with The Guardian in London, the chairperson of the committee, Senator Nkechi Nwaogu, said the panel was unhappy with the apex bank's dual roles as an accuser and a judge. She quickly added that the CBN would not be weakened, but strengthened to provide "efficient services."

To prepare the ground for the take off of reforms, the committee will consult with the chief executive officers (CEOs) of the 24 banks to get their input into the amendment of the CBN Act.

The lawmaker stated that the apex bank as now constituted is "overburdened with functions," such that the payment of depositors of failed banks had dragged for too long.

Nwaogu said it was also becoming evident that the CBN was not providing efficient supervision to the industry operators because "it has too much on its plate. For instance, the apex bank is the one supervising the over 800 microfinance banks in the country. I mean, it is not feasible for the apex bank to discharge its duties well. We still have the Bureau de Change and you also have other investment banks being supervised and licensed by the same CBN. We just think this is not right," Nwaogu said.

On the amendment of the CBN Act (2007), she said there are other areas "where we need the legislature to exact control. In fact, the CBN itself needs to be supervised, (because) we do not want a judge and a jury in one place. At present, the CBN serves as judge and jury and we think it's not right. "

The senator decried some unethical practices in the banking sector, especially the setting of unrealistic targets for members of staff, which she described as a "nightmare."

"The existing banks have missed the mark. Instead of developing products that will bring in fresh deposits and other new business activities, they have made life miserable for their personnel. They give them unreasonable and unattainable targets and consequently, in our committee, we have more than 20 petitions from bankers who are frightened to their teeth because of these."

Some banks, she added, "have capitalised on the high unemployment rate in the country to abuse their workers. Some of these bank officials just roam the streets, looking for deposits. The situation is even worse for women bankers, who are subjected to unspeakable activities. And worst of all, these banks do not even want to care about what they did before the deposits came in. So, we in the committee are saying, it is wrong. It is wrong! "

The panel is also unimpressed with the high figures quoted by some banks on their balance sheets, capital and asset bases, and profits, which it described as unrealistic.

Nwaogu accused the banks of not being transparent. "We know they're not transparent and neither are the figures being quoted realistic. If they have such figures, why then is the interest rate on credits so high and where are the economies of large scale? If everybody claims to have hit the trillion base, who are they lending it to?"

According to her, what the banks are claiming to be in their balance sheets does not correspond with the level of activities in the productive sector. "Since we do know that the level of activities in these banks is not commensurate with activities in the manufacturing and productive sectors, they're supposed to be servicing, and if they're not, what are the banks doing with these deposits and why is our credit so high? Why are people paying much as 30 per cent interest rate and why are they dwelling only on short-term monies? These are the sort of things we want to table at the forum with the banks' chief executives and perhaps, they might have answers or know what we don't know."

On casualisation in the industry, she said it is "inhuman."

"Our banks are copying what they do in the developed world by 'outsourcing' most of their activities," she noted. "Nigeria is not at that level , This should be done when the activities in Nigeria have reached saturation level, The percentage of labour employed is very small compared to the profits being declared by these banks and I think it's inhuman. We're an emerging market and I don't think the banks should engage in these practice."