Medicinal plants used in Gabon for prophylaxis and treatment against COVID-19-related symptoms: an ethnobotanical survey.

Gabon faced COVID-19 with more than 49,000 individuals tested positive and 307 recorded fatalities since the first reported case in 2020. A popular hypothesis is that the low rate of cases and deaths in the country was attributed to the use of medicinal plants in prevention and treatment. This study aimed to document the plants used for remedial and preventive therapies by the Gabonese population during the COVID-19 pandemic and to pinpoint specific potential plant species that merit further investigation.

The bii4africa dataset of faunal and floral population intactness estimates across Africa's major land uses.

Sub-Saharan Africa is under-represented in global biodiversity datasets, particularly regarding the impact of land use on species' population abundances. Drawing on recent advances in expert elicitation to ensure data consistency, 200 experts were convened using a modified-Delphi process to estimate 'intactness scores': the remaining proportion of an 'intact' reference population of a species group in a particular land use, on a scale from 0 (no remaining individuals) to 1 (same abundance as the reference) and, in rare cases, to 2 (populations that thrive in human-modified landscapes). The resulting bii4africa dataset contains intactness scores representing terrestrial vertebrates (tetrapods: ±5,400 amphibians, reptiles, birds, mammals) and vascular plants (±45,000 forbs, graminoids, trees, shrubs) in sub-Saharan Africa across the region's major land uses (urban, cropland, rangeland, plantation, protected, etc.

Urinary Metabolic Profiling in Volunteers Undergoing Malaria Challenge in Gabon.

The interaction of malaria parasites with their human host is extensively studied, yet only few studies reported how infection affects urinary metabolite profiles and how this is associated with immunity. We present a longitudinal study of the urinary metabolic profiles of twenty healthy Africans with lifelong exposure to malaria and five malaria-naïve Europeans, who were all challenged with direct venous inoculation of live sporozoïtes (PfSPZ) and followed up until they developed symptoms or became thick blood smear positive (TBS). Urine samples were collected before and at 2, 5, 9 and 11 days post challenge and were analysed.

Investigation of urinary metabolomics in a phase I hookworm vaccine trial in Gabon.

Metabolomics provides a powerful tool to study physiological changes in response to various perturbations such as vaccination. We explored whether metabolomic changes could be seen after vaccination in a phase I trial where Gabonese adults living either in rural or semi-urban areas received the subunit hookworm vaccine candidates (Na-GST-1 and Na-APR-1 (M74) adjuvanted with Alhydrogel plus GLA-AF (n = 24) or the hepatitis B vaccine (n = 8) as control. Urine samples were collected and assayed using targeted 1H NMR spectroscopy.

MGIS: managing banana (Musa spp.) genetic resources information and high-throughput genotyping data.

https://www.crop-diversity.org/mgis/.

Positive biodiversity-productivity relationship predominant in global forests.

The biodiversity-productivity relationship (BPR) is foundational to our understanding of the global extinction crisis and its impacts on ecosystem functioning. Understanding BPR is critical for the accurate valuation and effective conservation of biodiversity. Using ground-sourced data from 777,126 permanent plots, spanning 44 countries and most terrestrial biomes, we reveal a globally consistent positive concave-down BPR, showing that continued biodiversity loss would result in an accelerating decline in forest productivity worldwide.

Dichrostachys cinerea (L.) Wight et Arn (Mimosaceae) hydro-alcoholic extract action on the contractility of tracheal smooth muscle isolated from guinea-pig.

Background: Dichrostachys cinerea (L.) Wight et Arn. (Mimosaceae) is largely used in ethno-medically across Africa, and mainly employed for the treatment of asthma in Ivory Coast and Gabon.

A comparative kinetic study of doramectin and moxidectin in zebu Gobra cattle (Bos indicus).

The plasma kinetics of doramectin and moxidectin were evaluated in zebu Gobra under field conditions after subcutaneous administration of 0.2 mg kg(-1) of commercially available formulations for cattle. The results indicate that the absorption of moxidectin from the site of injection was significantly faster (absorption half-life [t1/2ab] = 0.