Articles

Physico-chemical and nutritional analysis of vermiwash produced from leaf litters of Pongamia pinnata using an Earthworm Eudrillus eugineae (Kinb.)

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Vermiwash production has become an innovative discipline of vermitechnology that is aimed basically at the culture of earthworms for waste recycling and the use of its castings for sustainable agriculture. This experiment was carried out to assess the physic-chemical and nutrient status of the vermiwash obtained using the popular composting earthworm species, Eudrillus eugineae (Kinb.) from leaf litters of Pongamia pinnata. The results showed substantial increase in the nutrient quality of the vermiwash produced with time in all the cases. However, the vermiwash produced from P. pinnata leaf litter showed more content of phosphorus, magnesium, calcium and other parameters compared with the vermiwash produced in without leaf litters considered as control. Such variations observed in the nutrient quality of the vermiwash produced from leaf litters indicate that the nutrient quality of the vermiwash produced could be largely influenced by the nature of the composting material thereby providing scope for further investigations in this field.

Physico-chemical Characteristics of Biochar Briquettes Blend of Goat Manure Charcoal, Saboak Shells and Rice Husk

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The study aimed to determine the effect of goat manure charcoal mixture, saboak shell and rice husk on the physico-chemical characteristics of biocharcoal briquettes. The completely randomized design with 4 treatments and 4 replicates was applied. Those treatments were P1 = 25% goat manure + 75% saboak shell without rice husk, P2 = 25% goat manure + 50% saboak shell + 25% rice husk, P3 = 25% goat manure + 25% saboak shell + 50% rice husk, P4 = 25% goat manure + 75% rice husk without saboak shell. Variables measured: yield, density, moisture content, ash content, volatile matter, fixed carbon and calorific value. The average data obtained were: yield 58.94%; density 0.65 g/cm3; moisture 2.42%; ash 27.41%; volatile matter 26.58%; fixed carbon 43.59%. and calorific value 4086.7 cal/ g; Statistical analysis showed that treatment had a very significant effect (P<0.01) on ash content and fixed carbon; significant effect (P<0.05) on moisture content and calorific value; and not significant (P>0.05) on yield, density and volatile matter. It was concluded that increasing the proportion of rice husk charcoal in the mixture with goat manure and saboak shell produced biochar briquettes with characteristics decreased of moisture content, fixed carbon and calorific value, increased of ash content while yield, density and volatile matter tended to be the same.

Assessment of Physico-chemical Parameters of water quality of Ground Water, Almanagil town, Gezira State, Sudan

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The current study was conducted to  evaluate physical and chemical parameters of water quality taken from some of ground wells  in Almanagil town, Gezira State, Sudan. The efforts, in this work, included a collection of different groundwater samples from Managil town. Many groundwater samples were collected from different wells distributed throughout the area of study. From all these groundwater samples, only eight samples were selected, to exclude repetition, and subjected to physico-chemical analysis. The physical characteristics including: conductivity (EC) of the collected samples were determined. The values of different chemical parameters as: pH, total dissolved salts (TDS) were measured according to the standard methods of analysis. In addition, the concentration of many anions (chloride, nitrite, nitrate) were determined. Results showed that EC between 440 -601 (ppm), GH 1000 (mg/L) all, NO3 and NO2  0.00 (mg/L) , Cl2 range between  0.7-3.58 (mg/L) ,KH 120- 362.667 (mg/L) ,salts 18.0-20.0 % ,  pH has values ranged from 8.0 – 8.5 while the Total Dissolved Solids (TDS (mg/L)) between 6.67 – 12.0 (mg/L) whereas (TDS (ppm)) between524.33- 653.67 . The results revealed significant different at (P≤ 0.01) with exception of (NO3) value zero so (NO2) and GH (1000mg/L) were not significant at P> 0.05). The findings show validity of certain samples for human uses.

Pharmacological Studies on Dregea Volubilis and Derris Trifoliate – The Medicinal Plants

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The present work aims to study the pharmacological studies such as physico-chemical and phytochemical screening on Dregea volubilis and Derris trifoliate. The samples were collected, washed, dried in hot air oven and were grinded to form fine powder. Both the powders were subjected to various physic-chemical tests such as ash value, water soluble ash, acid insoluble ash and loss on drying. Solvent optimization was carried out and it was found that water and organic solvent Methanol showed best extractive values. Further Methanolic extract was subjected to phytochemical screening which showed the presence of carbohydrates, alkaloid, flavonoids, tannins and phenols were present in both the plants.

Saponins were only present in Dregea volubilis plant powder.