B P International

Background: High cost of conventional animal feed ingredients in Nigeria has made it necessary to search for alternative local sources of feed. Crop residues including sweet potato leaves abound in Nigeria. These have been explored as feed sources. The ability of microorganisms to convert agricultural wastes to more useful products could be harnessed to produce feed from sweet potato leaves which can be obtained in high abundance at low cost. Aim: To examine the possibility of converting sweet potato leaves to animal feed through fermentation with a co-culture of Chaetomium globosum and Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Materials and Methods: Triplicate samples of sweet potato leaves were fermented with a co-culture of C. globosum and S. cerevisiae for 21 days at 25±2°C and the effects of fermentation on nutrient composition was determined. Fermentation and control samples were analysed for proximate, amino acids, and elemental contents. Acute oral toxicity of the fermented...

The present work aimed the prospection of microorganisms from Bauhinia monandra leaves, with the purpose to identify endophytics to obtain strains with possible biotechnological applications. B. monandra leaves, disinfected with hypochlorite solution, were macerated in phosphate buffered saline and seeded in ten culture media containing antibacterial or antifungal agents. The endophytic filamentous fungus strains detected belonged to the genera Penicillium, Curvullaria and Aspergillus. Non-filamentous endophyte bacteria were grouped in the genera Bacillus, Burkholderia, Enterobacter and strains of endophytic Actinobacteria were classified as Streptomyces and Nocardiopsis. The isolation of endophytic microorganisms with nine culture media revealed better bacteria development with L-arginine agar; inorganic salt starch agar and potato dextrose agar were superior to Actinobacteria and fungus strains, respectively. The present study revealed the predominance of the genus Penicillium in ...