Colocasia esculenta

On the west coast of Vanua Lava (Banks group, North Vanuatu), farmers do not only cultivate taro on irrigated terraces to live, but live to cultivate and eat taro every day. Taro holds the memory of the village, the ancestors, and the place of its production. This place – the taro water-gardens – is named rot, and is described in this article from an ecological and social point of view. The main goal is to understand why the inhabitants of the west coast of Vanua Lava are producing so much taro. Rot has to be managed with water canals, and includes qēl which are irrigate pondfields with wet and dry alternation structured in terraces (7.10 t dry matter/ha), mat which consists of modified rivers or streams (20.1 t/ha), and boak which are drained swamps (10.2 t/ha). The difference between estimates of the taro consumed (95.7 t) and the taro produced each year (146.5 t) leaves us to believe that a lot of taro is harvested in surplus for local subsistence needs, which reinforces the “social generosity” characteristic of Melanesian societies. The taro water-gardens of Vanua Lava offer a considerable food potential for the population of today and tomorrow.

In a context of globalization, Article 8j. from the Convention on Biological Diversity recognizes the value of biodiversity and formalizes its mixed nature through its biological as well as cultural dimensions. This new definition raises questions more than it solves them. We demonstrate that national and international organizations, local communities, and even researchers from different disciplines (anthropology, botany or genetics) identify and evaluate biodiversity differently. The various stakeholder groups have developed an unavoidable social relation with multiple aspects of biodiversity that they relate to through their job or way of life. And therefore, they pursue various conservation purposes: the preservation of place’s memory through ancestral links, cultural diversity, phenotypic variability or evolutionary potential. Which disciplinary and ethical boundaries are these actors willing to compromise, in order to preserve biodiversity in the name of development? Which indicators should we choose to fulfil which goals? The contrasting examples of taro (a socially valued object, planted on taro pondfields inherited “from the ancestors”, linked to an important cultural diversity and to a narrow genetic-base) and coconut (a socially devalued object, cultivated in coconut plantations at the prompting of “the Whites” and genetically diverse despite few named types) demonstrate that same farmers from a village in Vanuatu (South Pacific) affirm traditional ecological knowledge though their management of taro, and still participate in a market economy by intensifying their crop of coconuts. Conservation and research programs should integrate ethical questions and political processes to reconcile systems of diversified values and representations.

A sample of untrained panelists was used to evaluate a food product formulation called “Taro-Soy”, a taro based soy bean edible composite flour.  The proximate properties of the most acceptable formulation were determined. Different formulations of taro and soy bean flour were prepared in varying proportions of Taro: Soy as 90:10, 80:20, 70:30, and 60: 40, each named F1, F2, F3 and F4 respectively. Formulation F3 was the most acceptable and its proximate properties were 05.23% moisture, 03.53% ash, 10.93% crude fiber, 16.64% proteins, 05.18%fat and 53.55% total carbohydrates, making it resourceful in solving food security challenges and reducing prevalence of protein energy malnutrition (PEM).

The antinociceptive effects of methanolic extracts of Zizyphus mauritiana and Centella asiatica leaves were studied through the intraperitoneally administered acetic acidinduced pain model in Swiss albino mice. At doses of 50, 100, 200, and 400 mg methanolic extract of Zizyphus mauritiana leaves (MEZM) per kg body weight, MEZM caused dose-dependent and significant reductions in the number of abdominal constrictions induced in mice by intraperitoneal administration of acetic acid. At the afore-mentioned four doses, the number of abdominal constrictions (writhings) was reduced, respectively, by 31.2, 46.9, 56.2, and 62.5%. A standard antinociceptive drug, aspirin, when administered at doses of 200 and 400 mg per kg body weight, reduced the number of writhings by 34.4 and 46.9%, respectively. Thus MEZM produced antinociceptive effects and caused alleviation of pain, which was greater than that of the pain-alleviating drug, aspirin, even when the latter was used at a high dose of 400 mg per kg body weight. Methanolic extract of Centella asiatica leaves (MECA), at doses of 50, 100, 200, and 400 mg per kg body weight, caused reductions in the number of writhings, respectively, by 46.9, 50.0, 53.1, and 71.9%. Dose for dose, MECA was more effective than MEZM in alleviating pain, and both extracts demonstrated stronger potency than aspirin. Since pain is a universal problem afflicting human beings of all age groups throughout the world, the extracts even in the crude form can serve as a readily available and cheaper alternative in alleviating pain. The extracts deserve further studies for isolation and identification of the responsible bioactive components responsible for the observed antinociceptive effects.

This paper examines evidence for the origin of the tree Spondias mombin in Africa, where it is generally described as introduced from the Neotropics. Based on biogeographical, ecological, and historical evidence, this paper argues that the tree reached Africa via natural, long-distance dispersal, and should be considered an African native plant. The idea that it is introduced appeared in 1868, when it was a scientifically justifi- able conclusion reflecting the limitations of nineteenth-century biogeographical knowledge. By the early twentieth century, representing Spondias mombin as a human introduction in Africa was no longer scien- tifically justifiable because of advances in knowledge of the African flora and plant dispersal ecology. None- theless, most authors continued to represent the tree as introduced, in part because such representation was consonant with dominant images of the African environment: (a) that the continent had suffered extensive deforestation in the recent past, and (b) that Africa’s flora was depauperate in fruit trees prior to the coming of Europeans. Recent authors continue to describe Spondias mombin as introduced because they have not sufficiently considered the historic contexts of primary and secondary sources on Neotropical plant intro- ductions in Africa. This paper concludes that the human role in creating the African portion of the trans- Atlantic tropical flora has been overemphasized. Natural plant dispersal across the Atlantic may be more frequent than generally accepted.

Taro is an ancient crop native to Asia which is now found in all tropical and warm temperate regions of the world. Its present distribution is the result of a long history of use and translocation. Whilst in the Pacific much effort has been made to understand the role this plant played in prehistory, it has not received the same attention in Africa, even though it is a staple crop in some West African countries. recently, the retrieval of macro remains of dessicated taro at the Islamic port of Quseir al-Qadim in Egypt has revitalised the debate on the history of taro in Africa, and genetic has been initiated to reconstruct its introduction into the continent. Fieldwork and a genetic survey of taro in Africa was carried out as part of a project led by Dr Nicole Boivin (University of Oxford) and Dr Robin G. Allaby (University of Warwick). While analysis of the survey results is ongoing, a geographical and cultural appraisal of taro is presented here.

In the pursuit of making the nanoscale-research greener, the utilization of the reductive potency of a common byproduct of food processing industry i.e. orange peel is reported here to prepare biopolymer-templated “green” silver nanoparticles. Aqueous extract of orange peel at basic pH was exploited to prepare starch supported nanoparticles under ambient conditions. The compositional abundance of pectins, flavonoids, ascorbic acid, sugars, carotenoids and myriad other flavones may be envisaged for the effective reductive potential of orange peel to generate silver nanoparticles. The nanoparticles were distributed within a narrow size spectrum of (3–12 nm) with characteristic Bragg's reflection planes of fcc structure, and surface plasmon resonance peak at 404 nm. Anti-lipid peroxidation assay using goat liver homogenate and DPPH scavenging test established the anti-oxidant potency of the silver nanoparticles. Their synergy with rifampicin against Bacillus subtilis MTCC 736 and cytocompatibility with the human leukemic monocytic cell line, THP-1 were also investigated. Thus, the present work deals with the preparation of starch assisted anti-microbial, cytocompatible and free radical scavenging “green” silver nanoparticles.► “Green” silver nanoparticles (NPs) are prepared using orange peel aqueous extract. ► These starch supported NPs (3–12 nm) display surface plasmon resonance at 404 nm. ► The nanoparticles show DPPH scavenging and anti-bacterial activity. ► Anti-lipid peroxidation of liver homogenate establishes their anti-oxidant potency. ► The silver nanoparticles are cytocompatibile with THP-1 cells.

Although interest has recently increased, studies of the Indian Ocean slave trade remain scattered and weak compared with the massive volume of materials on the Atlantic trade. The proposal aims to explore this topic from a multi-disciplinary point of view, incorporating evidence from archaeology, ethnobotany, anthropology, linguistics, genetics and ethnomusicology and their synthesis into a broader assessment of the impact of slavery on the culture of in the Indian Ocean.

Recent research into the languages of the Nigeria-Cameroon borderland has made possible the elaboration of a more concrete schema relating Bantu and Bantoid languages to the Benue-Congo group. At the same time, new data sources on the vernacular names and ethnobotany of cultivated plants suggest hypotheses on the gradual domestication of indigenous flora. The pattern that emerges suggests that this process occurred gradually in widely scattered locations, but that some types of cultivation were established as far back as the period when Proto-Benue-Congo was spoken.

Cocoyam (Colocasia and Xanthosoma species) is Nigerian’s giant crop. The crop was becoming extinct as at 2007. Three songs: Stay Healthy with Cocoyam; Behold Nigerian’s Giant Crop and Amughariala Ebe Ozo (Cocoyam Re-birth) were composed to eulogize the crop under the aegis of Cocoyam Re-birth Initiative launched by the National Root Crops Research Institute, Umudike, Nigeria in 2007. The songs are presented as a novel approach to advocacy and re-awakening people’s interest towards developing a positive mental attitude (re-branding) for cocoyam to enhance agricultural transformation in the country. This success story is shared so that it can be replicated in other fields of agriculture or areas of National Brands, to achieve and sustain Nigeria’s dream to reduce extreme hunger and poverty by 2015.

KEYWORDS: Giant crop; eulogy; cocoyam song, cocoyam re-birth; re-branding.