Jose Adeolu Rufus’s scientific contributions

The prevalence of mosquito-borne diseases is one of the world's most important health problems. Therefore, it is necessary to prevent mosquito-borne diseases and improve public health by controlling mosquitoes. Mosquitoes in the larval stage are attractive targets for pesticides because mosquitoes breed in water, which makes it easy to deal with them in this habitat. Nowadays, the control of mosquitoes at larval stage is focused with plant extracts. The present study explored potential larvicidal activity of Persea americana seed using different solvents viz. chloroform, ethyl acetate and acetone for the crude extracts as alternatives to potentially harmful synthetic insecticides. Ten 3rd and 4th instar larvae of Anopheles gambiae, were subjected to different concentration (5μl, 10μl, 15μl, 20μl, 30μl and 40μl) of P. americana seed chloroform, ethyl acetate and acetone crude extracts under WHO laboratory procedure. The percentage mortality of the mosquito species was tested after 24 hrs of exposure to different concentration of the seed extracts. Mortality was dose dependent; ethyl acetate extract recorded higher mortalities after 24 hours at 40μl and similar trend was equally observed in other extracts. LC50 value was lowest for chloroform extract thus suggested to be more toxic than other extracts evaluated.

Tribolium castaneum is a major threat to storage of wheat flour and other milled cereal products causing nutritional qualitative deterioration. Owing to the increase in the utilization of wheat flour in the diet of most population in Nigeria; this study was carried out to examine the effect of T. castaneum infestation on the nutritional quality of different trade mark wheat flour marketed in Nigeria in the laboratory under ambient conditions. The wheat flour samples (uninfested and infested) were analyzed for proximate and anti-nutrient composition using standard laboratory procedure. Results obtained show that due to infestation; carbohydrate, fibre and all the anti–nutrient content (Oxalate, Phytate, Alkaloid, Flavonoid and Phenol) decreased; whereas, protein, crude fat and moisture content increased after infestation respectively, thus altering the nutritional composition of the wheat flour. In light of the foregoing, proper storage sanitation techniques was advocated in the handling of wheat flour right from the manufacturers’ warehouse, distribution or marketing channel and consumers in order to reduce the incidence of T. castaneum infestation on wheat flour.