Botanicals and plant strengtheners for potato and tomato cultivation in Africa

This review provides a summary of botanicals and plant strengtheners that have potential uses for disease and pest management in potato and tomato cultivation in African. We discuss their possible use to prevent major diseases and pests which infest potato and tomato, such as early and late blight, bacterial wilt, potato tuber moth, and tomato leafminer. There are several examples of the successful uses of botanicals for pathogen and pest control relevant for different African climatic conditions; however, most of these studies have been conducted in vitro and often lack field verification. Plant strengtheners(substances that induce and improve crop resistance, yield, and quality) are little studied and used in Africa in comparison to North America and Europe. The possible benefits of using botanicals and plant strengtheners instead of conventional pesticides are discussed here in relation to human health and the environment as well as their modes of action and accessibility to farmers. Lack of knowledge of the composition and active ingredients of extracts, environmental concerns, uncertainties regarding stability and formulation, lack of legislation and limited support from governments, hamper the development of botanicals and plant strengtheners for use in sustainable African agriculture.     

The effect of dietary bamboo charcoal supplementation on growth and serum biochemical parameters of juvenile common carp (Cyprinus carpio L.)

This study investigated the effect of dietary bamboo charcoal (BC) supplementation on the growth performance and health status of juvenile common carp (Cyprinus carpio L.). A 63‐day feeding trial was carried out wherein the carp were reared on diets containing increasing levels of BC (0%, 0.5%, 1%, 2% and 4%). Treatment with BC did not produce any obvious effect (p > .05) on the growth performance of the juvenile common carp and on the overall muscle fatty acid composition. However, significant improvements (p < .05) were reported on serum indicators such as alanine aminotransferase (ALT), aspartate aminotransferase (AST), total protein (TP), triglycerides (TG), total cholesterol (TC), high density lipoprotein (HDL) and glucose (GLU) with the 4% inclusion level producing the most beneficial effects without adversely affecting some of the indices that were not improved at this level. Improvements were further observed in the intestinal villus length and goblet cells numbers at 4% supplementation. Although some evidence of potential toxicity exists, the overall findings of this study suggest that supplementation of common carp diets with 4% BC has a potential to enhance serum biochemical indices, intestinal functions and fatty acid content in common carp. Furthermore, while no positive effects were observed on the growth performance and total muscle fatty acid composition, no adverse effects were reported on these parameters. Therefore, BC has the potential to be used as a feed additive in the diets of juvenile common carp to improve health status and intestinal function.