Aspects of African Biodiversity

Proceedings of the Pan Africa Chemistry Network Biodiversity Conference
Erscheinungsjahr 2009
ISBN: 978-1-84755-948-7
Verlag: RSC Publishing

Buch, Englisch, 204 Seiten, Format (B × H): 158 mm x 241 mm, Gewicht: 1032 g

This book is the proceedings of the Pan Africa Chemistry Network Biodiversity Conference which was held in September 2008. A key aim of the RSC/Syngenta Pan Africa Chemistry Network (PACN) is to connect African scientists through a cycle of conferences and workshops and this conference held at the University of Nairobi was the first of these. It brought together 26 speakers from nine African countries - Kenya, Ethiopia, Tanzania, South Africa, Nigeria, Botswana, Uganda, Zimbabwe and Sudan - plus the UK and Brazil. The lectures covered topics such as making the best use of the diversity of Africa's plants in agriculture and medicine whilst benefiting communities in Africa; natural products; analysis and the environment; water quality; dealing with waste; biofuels; understanding crop protection chemicals in the African context; agricultural practices for Africa; farm animals; conservation and the impact of tourism on biodiversity. The resulting book provides a valuable overview of several aspects of biodiversity in Africa.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Midiwo, Jacob

Clough, John

Fachgebiete

• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Spezielle Soziologie Wissenssoziologie, Wissenschaftssoziologie, Techniksoziologie
• Interdisziplinäres Wissenschaften Wissenschaft und Gesellschaft | Kulturwissenschaften
• Naturwissenschaften Agrarwissenschaften Agrarwissenschaften
• Naturwissenschaften Chemie Chemie Allgemein

Inhaltsverzeichnis

1. Challenges and opportunities for Africa: an overview of key themes from the PACN biodiversity conference;

2. Exploring the therapeutic potentials of African medicinal plants;

3. Natural products from plant biodiversity and their use in the treatment of neglected diseases;

4. In vitro and in vivo antiplasmodial activity of Kenyan medicinal plants;

5. Anti-larval activity of crude plant extracts from vitex schiliebenii and vitex payos (verbenaceae);

6. Natural products as leads for new and innovative crop protection chemicals;

7. Exploiting phytochemical diversity to control pests of agriculture and vectors of human and animal disease;

8. Root chemicals could offer opportunities for breeding for sweet potato resistance to the weevil cylas puncticollis boheman (coleoptera: apionidae);

9. The role of biotechnology in meeting the biodiversity conservation challenge of Africa;

10. Farmers as a treasure chest of biodiversity - the case of sorghum [sorghum bicolor (l.) Moench] in Ethiopia, a five decade analysis;

11. Delivery of appropriate cattle genotypes to eastern African smallholder farmers through in-vitro embryo production technologies - the technical procedures, prospects and challenges;

12. Levels of some nutrients and non-essential metals in cows' whole milk from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia;

13. Water, water everywhere and when found not fit to drink;

14. Foundation for analytical science and technology in Africa and its role in the preservation of endangered species;

15. Jua kali metallurgical industries as point sources of the heavy metals lead and cadmium to aquatic systems in Kenyan urban areas;

16. An assessment of effluent treatment to reduce heavy metal levels in effluent from a battery manufacturing concern;

17. Spectroscopic detection of gaseous ammonia in the environment;

18. Jatropha curcas l. As a source for the production of biodiesel in Kenya;

19. Jatropha biodiesel as an alternative transport fuel in Zimbabwe;

20. Biomass, bio-based products and bioenergy;

21. Municipal solid waste as a resource rather than a waste. A preliminary study of biomass from Githurai market, an open market in the outskirts of Nairobi city;

Subject Index

Über Autor(innen)

Professor Jacob Midiwo is at the Department of Chemistry, University of Nairobi, Kenya, Africa Dr John Clough is at Syngenta, Bracknell, UK