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Over the years, the world has continued to be plagued by type 2 diabetes (T2D). As a lifestyle disease, obese individuals are at higher risk of developing the disease. Medicinal plants have increasingly been utilized as remedial agents for managing metabolic syndrome. The aim of the present study was to investigate the in vitro anti-hyperglycemic and anti-lipidemic potential of Croton gratissimus herbal tea infusion. The inhibitory activities of C. gratissimus on carbohydrate (α-glucosidase and α-amylase) and lipid (pancreatic lipase) hydrolyzing enzymes were determined, and the mode of inhibition of the carbohydrate digestive enzymes was analyzed and calculated via Lineweaver–Burk plots and Michaelis Menten's equation. Its effect on Advanced Glycation End Product (AGE) formation, glucose adsorption, and yeast glucose utilization were also determined. High-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) was used to quantify the possible phenolic compounds present in the herbal tea infusion, and the compounds were docked with the digestive enzymes. C. gratissimus significantly (p < 0.05) inhibited α-glucosidase (IC50 = 60.56 ± 2.78 μg/mL), α-amylase (IC50 = 35.67 ± 0.07 μg/mL), as well as pancreatic lipase (IC50 = 50.27 ± 1.51 μg/mL) in a dose-dependent (15–240 µg/mL) trend. The infusion also inhibited the non-enzymatic glycation process, adsorbed glucose effectively, and enhanced glucose uptake in yeast cell solutions at increasing concentrations. Molecular docking analysis showed strong binding affinity between HPLC-quantified compounds (quercetin, caffeic acid, gallic acid, and catechin) of C. gratissimus herbal tea and the studied digestive enzymes. Moreover, the herbal tea product did not present cytotoxicity on 3T3-L1 cell lines. Results from this study suggest that C. gratissimus herbal tea could improve glucose homeostasis and support its local usage as a potential anti-hyperglycemic and anti-obesogenic agent. Further in vivo and molecular studies are required to bolster the results from this study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, composite of metal oxide has continually elicited tremendous attention from research scientist globally as a viable adsorbent for the removal of phenol and its derivative from aqueous media owing to their improved physicochemical structures which enhanced adsorption capacity. In this study, a composite of alumina-zirconia (Al2O3–ZrO2) was synthesised by calcination techniques and characterised using scanning electron microscopy–energy dispersive X-ray Spectroscopy (SEM-EDX), and X-ray diffraction (XRD). Results from characterisation revealed the formation of this composite with amorphous structure. The composite was employed to evaluate the performance removal of phenol and 2,4-dichlorophenol from solutions using the batch adsorption technique by considering the influence of varying solution pH, initial concentration, adsorbent dosage, contact time and temperature. The optimal conditions predicted from the study are pH of 7 and 8 at a contact time of 90 minutes for phenol and 120 minutes for 2,4-dichlorophenol, respectively, at a temperature of 301 K. The isothermic empirical models of Langmuir, Freundlich and and Dubinin-Radushkevich were employed. The Freundlich model best described the adsorption process with R2 correlation values (0.945–0.998). The pseudo-second-order kinetics model adequately depicted the rate of adsorption with higher correlation values (≥0.99) for both compounds as compared to the pseudo-first order. The thermodynamic parameters computed suggest non-spontaneous, exothermic reaction and decreased randomness. The study portends the composite Al2O3–ZrO2 composite to be viable for removal of phenolic compounds from wastewater. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examined the levels of some heavy metals in soils of Oke-Ere mining area in Yagba West, Kogi State, Nigeria, aim at ascertaining the degree of pollution, and risk pose to the environment, and human health to the residents in the area. A total of 48 soil samples were analysed by using Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectroscopy (ICP-MS). The mean concentrations (mg/kg) were As(1.92), Cd(< 0.004), Co(29.8), Cr(117), Mo(4.00), Ni(51.4), Pb(24.1), Sc(17.8), Sn(21.9), and Zn(85.8). Principal component analysis revealed significant anthropogenic contributions of Sc, Cr, Ni, and As in soils. Geochemical assessment evaluated based on models of geochemical load index (Igeo), enrichment factor (EF), contamination factor (Cf) and pollution load index (PLI), revealed that the soils were highly polluted by Sc, moderately polluted by Sn and non-polluted to slightly polluted by other metals. Enrichment factor shows significant enrichment by Sc, while Cr, Pb, Co, Mo and Sn were moderately enriched. The contamination factor indicated low contamination for most of the studied metals except Cu and Co which recorded considerable contamination. The values of pollution load index PLI > 1, signifies that the mining activities deteriorated soil quality. The total hazard index (HI) of the metals for adult and children, indicates HI < 1 which connotes a non-carcinogenic health risk effect. The cancer risk (CR) value for ingestion and dermal exposure pathways was higher than the permissible limits (1 x 10−6 to 1 × 10−4), which indicated adverse health risk to the local resident. This study suggested adequate attention be directed to detailed risk assessment of heavy metals in the study area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]