African Varieties Research Articles

An Evidence-based Systematic Review of Pleiotropic Potential Health Benefits of <i>Sorghum bicolor</i> Supplement: A Polyphenol-rich Derivative of the Leaf Sheaths of <i>Sorghum</i> Plant

Globally, across different cultures, humans have historically depended largely on medicinal plants for managing diseases that have hitherto threatened their optimal health, survival, and longevity. Evidently, the health-derived benefits of medicinal plants have been strongly attributed to the presence of secondary metabolites, particularly polyphenols. The potential health benefits of the leaf sheaths of the West African variety of Sorghum bicolor-based Jobelyn Supplement (SBJS) have also been ascribed to its high contents of polyphenols. This systematic review seeks to synthetically harmonize findings from various experimental and clinical studies on the health benefits of SBJS in different disease conditions including arthritis, cancer, chronic viral infections, stroke, anaemia, and premature aging. A systematic search was conducted using three primary databases (PubMed, Europe PMC, and Cochrane Library), to identify published articles on therapeutic potentials of SBJS and ethnomedicinal surveys on the application of the West African variety of S. bicolor using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analyses (PRISMA) standard. The inclusion criteria were experimental and clinical studies conducted on SBJS and West African variety of S. bicolor; while ethnomedicinal surveys were on the therapeutic uses of the West African variety of S. bicolor published in the English language. The review provides valuable information suggesting that SBJS possesses pleiotropic therapeutic potentials in diverse pathological conditions through mechanisms relating to antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, immunomodulatory, chemopreventive, and neuroprotective activities. The review also showed that SBJS contains several bioactive substances with polyvalent pharmacological potentials including modulation of pathological mechanisms involved in the mediation of aging and age-related diseases, such as arthritis, stroke, memory loss and cancer as well as chronic viral infections. Taken together, these findings further suggest the need for more robust studies (including disease-specific clinical trial programs) in order to replicate and validate the prior insights gleaned from previous investigations on SBJS.

Isolation and Antitumoral Effect of a New Siphonochilone Derivative from African Ginger.

A new eusdesmane sesquiterpenoid, characterized as 3,5,8a-trimethyl-8-oxo-4,4a,5,6,7,8,8a,9-octahydronaphtho[2,3-b]furan-5-yl acetate (1), has been isolated from the rhizomes of the South African variety of wild ginger (Siphonochilus aethiopicus (Schweinf) B. L. Burtt). The compound was obtained by silica gel column chromatography. Its structure was elucidated by nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (NMR) and mass-spectrometric (MS) analyses, including 1D-, 2D-NMR, and HR-LCMS. We also investigated the cytotoxic effect of 1 on a panel of cancer cell lines, human breast, pancreas, lung, colon, and central nervous system cancer lines. The data are not encouraging since its antitumor effect is poor. Nonetheless, the discovery of new molecules may provide a source of new compounds with important biological effects applicable to the field of medicine.

Spatial Locative Relativization in Three African Varieties of Portuguese: Unity in Diversity and Diversity in Unity

This paper investigates the formation of spatial locative relativization in three African varieties of Portuguese. While research on relative constructions in Portuguese has deserved considerable attention in the literature, it tends to focus on the European and Brazilian varieties, with locative relativization being only marginally addressed. Using data extracted from spoken corpora of contemporary, urban varieties of Angolan, Mozambican, and Santomean Portuguese, we aim to discuss whether there is a correlation between syntactic and semantic variables and the selection of the two main locative relative morphemes, onde ‘where’ and que ‘that’. Overall, the three varieties at stake behave similarly with respect to the analyzed syntactic variables and follow the tendency found in Portuguese varieties toward the use of pied-piping and P-chopping as the dominant relativization mechanisms, independent of the syntactic relation between the antecedent and the relative clause. Semantically, we identified some fine-grained differences between the three varieties, with Santomean Portuguese generally being the outlier or one of the outliers. Crucially, definiteness of the head noun stands out as the one variable that plays a major role in the selection of the relative morpheme: [−definite] head nouns show a proportionally higher preference for que in both AP and STP, which is particularly visible with bare nouns in the latter. This motivates the hypothesis that less specified head nouns show a preference for the un(der)specified relative morpheme que. We further show that the role of language contact is at best very limited.

Adjective comparison in African varieties of English

Adjectives in English can express the comparative in two ways, either synthetically, with the addition of the suffix -er (e.g. nicer), or analytically, with the adverb more preceding the adjective (e.g. more outstanding). With some adjectives, the two forms coexist (e.g. cleverer and more clever). While traditional grammars state that length (measured in number of syllables) is the main determinant for comparative variation (Quirk et al. 1985; Biber et al. 1999; Huddleston and Pullum 2002), more recent and focused studies (Mondorf 2003, 2007, 2009; Hilpert 2008) show that the distribution of English comparative forms is conditioned by more than the number of syllables, establishing a more complex set of factors to account for this alternation. The aim of the current paper is to assess the main factors that underlie comparative alternation through an in-depth analysis of the presence of synthetic and analytic forms in a set of adjectives taken from five African varieties of English (South African, Nigerian, Ghanaian, Kenyan, and Tanzanian English). In line with contemporary studies (Mondorf 2003), the results ascertain that comparative alternation is primarily governed by intra-linguistic factors, predominantly of morphosyntactic, semantic and phonological nature. Additionally, the impact of other commonly-cited factors, such as learner effects and L1 influence, which are expected to reinforce the observed tendency towards analyticization, is also explored.

Invariant Question Tags in Asian and African Varieties of English

Invariant Question Tags in Asian and African Varieties of English

Clíticos reflexos e inerentes na variedade de português de São Tomé e Príncipe

This article focuses on verb constructions that select reflexive and inherent clitics in São Tomean Portuguese. Some studies have pointed out a tendency towards the omission of clitics from the reflexive paradigm in African varieties of Portuguese. The present study will deal with the variety of Portuguese spoken in São Tomé and Príncipe, that is undergoing a process of nativization. The first part offers a brief literature review on reflexive and inherent clitics in European Portuguese. The second part analyses oral data from a corpus, focusing on the variables education and age. The occurrences will be analyzed from a quantitative perspective, in order to verify the relevance of the omission strategy in spoken language in São Tomé. The data seems, in fact, to indicate that this variety of Portuguese presents a strong tendency towards the suppression of clitics. Inherent clitics suffer greater omission than reflexive clitics, which, nevertheless, are also suppressed. Furthermore, the variable education seems to have some weight in the choice of strategy by speakers, unlike the variable age. The article will also discuss if the omission strategy present in São Tomean Portuguese is a product of contact with Santome Creole or the result of a process of (historical) acquisition of Portuguese as L2.

Calling vocatives duration in Libolo Portuguese

Abstract This paper aims to study two types of distinct vocatives in absolute position in Portuguese of Libolo (Angola), a barely studied African variety of Portuguese: the initial call and the insistent call. The results reveal that: (i) long postonic syllables characterize the two types of calls; (ii) there is greater variability in the duration of the postonic syllable of insistent calls; (iii) the duration is a robust correlate that distinguishes these two types of vocatives; and (iv) insistent calls are longer, both concerning the total duration of the utterance and in relation to the duration of each syllable (that is, there is an additive effect). These results are supported by statistical analyses. It was proved that the difference in duration between initial and insistent calls in Libolo Portuguese is statistically significant. Furthermore, Bayesian analyses not only conferred greater reliability on the results of the initial analyses, since it is a small dataset, but also provided a greater understanding of the relationship between the two types of vocatives, regarding the greater variability of results of the insistent call.

Genetic characterization of Strongyloides fuelleborni infecting free-roaming African vervets (Chlorocebus aethiops sabaeus) on the Caribbean island of St. Kitts.

Human strongyloidiasis is an important neglected tropical disease primarily caused by the nematode Strongyloides stercoralis, and to a lesser extent Strongyloides fuelleborni which mainly infects non-human primates. Zoonotic sources of infection have important implications for control and prevention of morbidity and mortality caused by strongyloidiasis. Recent molecular evidence suggests that for S. fuelleborni, primate host specificity is variable among genotypes across the Old World, and consequently that these types likely vary in their capacity for human spillover infections. Populations of free-roaming vervet monkeys (Chlorocebus aethiops sabaeus), introduced to the Caribbean Island of Staint Kitts from Africa, live in close contact with humans, and concern has arisen regarding their potential to serve as reservoirs of zoonotic infections. In this study, we sought to determine the genotypes of S. fuelleborni infecting St. Kitts vervets to explore whether they are potential reservoirs for human-infecting S. fuelleborni types. Fecal specimens were collected from St. Kitts vervets and S. fuelleborni infections were confirmed microscopically and by PCR. Strongyloides fuelleborni genotypes were determined from positive fecal specimens using an Illumina amplicon sequencing-based genotyping approach targeting the mitochondrial cox1 locus and 18S rDNA hypervariable regions I and IV of Strongyloides species. Phylogenetic analysis of resultant genotypes supported that S. fuelleborni from St. Kitts vervets is of an exclusively African variety, falling within the same monophyletic group as an isolate which has been detected previously in a naturally infected human from Guinea-Bissau. This observation highlights that St. Kitts vervets may serve as potential reservoirs for zoonotic S. fuelleborni infection, which warrants further exploration.

Traces of Introgression from cAus into Tropical Japonica Observed in African Upland Rice Varieties

BackgroundAsian rice Oryza sativa, first domesticated in East Asia, has considerable success in African fields. When and where this introduction occurred is unclear. Rice varieties of Asian origin may have evolved locally during and after migration to Africa, resulting in unique adaptations, particularly in relation to upland cultivation as frequently practiced in Africa.MethodsWe investigated the genetic differentiation between Asian and African varieties using the 3000 Rice Genomes SNP dataset. African upland cultivars were first characterized using principal component analysis among 292 tropical Japonica accessions from Africa and Asia. The particularities of African accessions were then explored using two inference techniques, PCA-KDE for supervised classification and chromosome painting, and ELAI for individual allelic dosage monitoring.Key ResultsAmbiguities of local differentiation between Japonica and other groups pointed at genomic segments that potentially resulted from genetic exchange. Those specific to West African upland accessions were concentrated on chromosome 6 and featured several cAus introgression signals, including a large one between 17.9 and 21.7 Mb. We found iHS statistics in support of positive selection in this region and we provide a list of candidate genes enriched in GO terms that have regulatory functions involved in stress responses that could have facilitated adaptation to harsh upland growing conditions.

African Englishes in the <i>Oxford English Dictionary</i>

In some of its recent quarterly updates, the Oxford English Dictionary has published particularly large batches of new and revised entries from South African English, Nigerian English, and East African English. The present article is a detailed discussion of the editorial work behind these updates for African varieties of English, whose distinctive vocabularies the OED is currently taking steps to cover more widely. The paper explains how words are selected for inclusion, how new entries are researched and written, how new sources of textual evidence such as social media give OED editors greater insight into African Englishes, and how the dictionary's African consult­ants and users contribute to ensuring the accuracy and authenticity of the OED's definitions, ety­mologies, pronunciations, and quotation evidence. The article also highlights a selection of African words and phrases that have recently been added to or revised in the OED, all of which show the many different forms of lexical innovation that shape the distinctive vocabularies of African Eng­lishes. Keywords: Oxford English Dictionary, historical lexicography, African Englishes, East African English, South African English, West African English, Nigerian English

S6.2d Dermatophytosis due to Trichophyton erinacei caused by contact with African hedgehogs as family pets

S6.2 Resurgence of dermatophytic infections, September 22, 2022, 4:45 PM - 6:15 PMObjectiveTo present a series of cases of various types of dermatophytosis caused by Trichophyton erinacei, caused by contact with African hedgehogs.MethodsPatients with clinical suspicion of ringworm caused by T. erinacei were included in the study. Each patient underwent a mycological study, with direct examinations (KOH), cultures in Sabouraud dextrose agar medium with and without antibiotics. With the cultures obtained, molecular identification was made using the PCR technique and Matrix Assisted Laser Desorption Ionization Time of Flight (MALDI-TOF) proteomics. Once confirmed, the patients were given treatment and follow-up. When the pets (hedgehogs) were accessible, they were cultured with a cytobrush and the quills removed.ResultsIn a period of 3.5 years, 16 verified cases were incorporated, 13 were females (72%) and 3 males (18%), the average age was 18.2 years, with the smallest case being 8 years old and the oldest 45 years old. The tineas manifested as follows: tinea manus 11 cases (68.7%); 2 respective cases of tinea corporis and tinea capitis (18.1 respectively) and one case of Majocchi's granuloma. The average evolution was 1.5 months with the case older than 3 months and the younger 15 days. All cases were given terbinafine at variable times and doses (according to weight and age) and clinical and mycological cure was obtained.DiscussionTineas can have epidemiological changes that are favored by a variety of factors, in general, pet ringworms are due to common domestic animals such as dogs and cats. Due to changing fashions, children and adolescents in recent years have changed pets such as hamsters, and recently hedgehogs, especially African variety (Atelerix albiventris) the latter may have T. erinacei as part of their skin microbiota, a similar dermatophyte or that was part of the T. mentagrophyes complex, in general of low virulence, however, its antigenic variants are little recognized by humans, which makes them present in a very inflammatory form, particularly in the hands, due to the handling of the animal, as well as the deeper inoculation (in the dermis) by the spikes left by the inoculum. So, they can generate deep tineas such as Majocchi's granuloma. In general, they respond well to systemic antifungals such as terbinafine and itraconazole, and sometimes the use of topical or systemic steroids is necessary.ConclusionsThis series of cases is a good example of how a change of habits when having pets can introduce new etiological agents that are poorly recognized antigenically, which give rise to more inflammatory and sometimes profound tineas.

Goal arguments of ir ‘to go’ and chegar ‘to arrive’ in three African varieties of Portuguese

In research on African varieties of Portuguese, especially Angolan and Mozambican Portuguese, it is often referred that Goal arguments of verbs of movement show a tendency to be headed by locative preposition em ‘in’, contrasting with the use of a ‘to’ and para ‘to, toward’ in European Portuguese. Language contact is generally considered the primary factor with respect to the use of the noncanonical pattern. Using spoken corpora of the urban varieties of Angolan, Mozambican and Santomean Portuguese, this paper develops a case-study of Goal arguments that occur with two frequently used verbs of inherently directed motion, ir ‘to go’ and chegar ‘to arrive’, to assess the contact-induced hypothesis and to explore alternative, semantic-based hypotheses. Overall, a cross-comparison of the varieties at stake and their main contact languages shows that the role of language contact is limited at best. A semantic analysis of em, on the other hand, shows promising results, since the occurrence of this preposition is favored by NPs that denote an entity with well-defined boundaries and is sensitive to the lexical semantics of the verbs, i.e., whether the verb describes a durative or non-durative change of place, and to the type of eventuality described by the predication.

Dative Microvariation in African Varieties of Portuguese

In this paper we compare dative ditransitive structures in nativized and nativizing urban varieties of Portuguese spoken in Angola, Mozambique, and São Tomé and Príncipe, using a corpus-based approach. It is shown that the expression of the Recipient exhibits considerable variation within and across these varieties, as well as at intraspeaker level. Despite the use of non-canonical patterns, namely prepositional structures with em and para and double object constructions, the canonical European Portuguese pattern with Case marker a is predominant in our data. Moreover, the pronominalized counterparts of these different realizations show much less variation and strong convergence toward dative clitic lhe(s). To account for the data, we propose a Larsonian VP-shell in which Recipients as extended DPs occur internally to a K(ase) projection whose functional head can be spelled out as a, em or para. Recipients in double object constructions, on the other hand, are treated as plain DPs which may pronominalize as dative clitics or, less commonly, as strong pronouns. Overall, our hypothesis weakens the role of language contact, which has often been assumed as a critical factor in the literature, but still allows for (individual) grammars that show evidence of being substrate-induced.

Physiology and adaptation strategy of sesame (Sesamum indicum L.) to salinity

Salinization is a global environmental problem. It is particularly prevalent in Africa in areas with a low rainfall trend such as the Senegalese groundnut basin where 20% of the land is affected. It reduces global food production by more than 10%. In Senegal, sesame (Sesamum indicum L.) moderately tolerant to drought and salinity is increasingly cultivated. It is an alternative to fight poverty in rural areas and allows the revaluation of salty land. The objective of this work is to evaluate at the early stage of reproduction the effect of salinity on the chlorophyll and ion (Na+ and Cl−) contents of four African varieties of sesame. The experimental device consists of randomized blocks with two factors and three repetitions. The sesame variety factor consists of four modalities (AS09, AS14, AS15 and AS25). The salinity factor or abiotic stress (NaCl) includes three modalities (0 mM, 17 mM and 34 mM). The parameters evaluated are the contents of Na+ and Cl− ions and of chlorophylls (Chl a, Chl b and total Chl). The results showed that the contents of chlorophylls (Chl a, Chl b and Chl) and Cl− and Na+ ions of sesame leaves increased with NaCl at 44 days after sowing. The Cl− contents of sesame leaves are higher than those of Na+ in all treatments. Chlorophyll increased with sesame varieties and salinity. Variety AS15 produced the greatest amounts of chlorophyll. Sesame, an inclusive-type plant, compartmentalizes Cl− and Na+ ions at the leaf level in vacuoles. He developed a tissue tolerance to salinity.

Português guineense: O que a entoação das sentenças interrogativas mostra sobre essa variedade

ABSTRACT In Guinea-Bissau, Portuguese is the only official language, and, for historical and sociopolitical reasons, European Portuguese (EP) is assumed as the variety spoken. However, we find a multilingual space in which Kriol is the national unity language and Portuguese is spoken as a second language. In this context, we analyzed the intonation of neutral yes-no questions of Guinea-Bissau Portuguese (GBP), to examine whether the intonation of this sentence type resembles that found SEP (spoken in Lisbon) or whether we are facing a Guinea-Bissau Portuguese variety in formation. Using the theoretical framework of Prosodic Phonology and Intonational Phonology, we analyzed neutral yes-no questions produced through a reading task performed by four Guinea-Bissau participants, native speakers of Kriol, and speakers of Portuguese as a second language. Our results show that, for the pre-nuclear and nuclear contour as well as tonal density, the intonation of GBP neutral yes-no questions differs from SEP and is closer to Brazilian and African varieties already studied. This outcome was previously pointed out in the literature for declarative sentences, suggesting that GBP is developing its own intonational grammar.

Competing -Isms in the Horn of Africa: The Rise and Fall of Pan-Ethiopianism and Pan-Somalism

In the 1960s, Africa was heavily influenced by Pan-Africanist ideals promoted by great leaders such as Kwame Nkrumah. At the same time, it was also an era of other great -isms entering the African continent, namely Socialism, Marxism, Pan-Arabism, Pan-Islamism, and regional varieties of Pan-Movements. This article assesses two such pan-movements, namely, Pan-Ethiopianism and Pan-Somalism, which had very explosive and competing characters. This article examines the different historical roots of both movements (Pan-Ethiopianism and Pan-Somalism) and their competing elements. It also analyzes how relevant they are for our understanding of historical developments in the region of the Horn of Africa up until the present day.

Agrobacterium-mediated cassava transformation for the Asian elite variety KU50.

Cassava genetic transformation has mostly been reported for African cassava varieties, but not for Asian varieties. This is the first report of cassava transformation in Asian elite varieties using friable embryogenic calli. Agrobacterium-mediated cassava transformation via friable embryogenic calli (FEC) has enabled the robust production of transgenic cassava. So far, mostly the model cassava variety 60444 and African varieties have been transformed because of their good production and regeneration from embryogenic tissues. It is important to develop transformation methods for elite Asian cassava varieties to meet the changing needs in one of the world's major cassava production areas. However, a suitable transformation method for the Asian elite variety Kasetsart 50 (KU50) has not been developed. Here, we report a transformation method for KU50, the cultivar with the highest planting area in Thailand and Vietnam. In cassava transformation, the preparation of FEC as the target tissue for transgene integration is a key step. FEC induction from KU50 was improved by using media with reduced nutrients and excess vitamin B1, and somatic embryo and plant regeneration optimized by manipulation of naphthalene acetic acid (NAA), and benzylamino purine (BAP). The transformation efficiency for KU50 was 22%, approximately half that of 60444 at 45%. Transcriptome analysis indicated that the expression of genes related to cell-wall loosening was upregulated in FEC from KU50 compared with 60444, indicating that cell-wall production and assembly were disproportionate in the Asian variety. The transformation system for KU50 reported here will contribute to the molecular breeding of cassava plants for Asian farmers using transgenic and genome-editing technologies.

A morphosyntactic approach to language contact in African varieties of English

ABSTRACT This study aims to widen our knowledge of substrate influence and language transfer in World Englishes through the study of the verb complementation system of REGRET in four African postcolonial varieties. An examination of the most widely spoken substrates in each variety does not seem to explain the different tendencies in the distribution of finite and nonfinite complementation patterns across varieties, since English varieties with different complementation systems in their substrate languages, Kenyan English and Nigerian English, for example, show similar distributions in their use of English complementation. Such differences in the distribution seem to be the result of other factors playing an essential role in language contact situations, namely, the tendency towards transparency in second language varieties, the geographical proximity of the English varieties, and the evolution of the varieties measured in terms of the Dynamic Model (Schneider 2007).

The genomes of ancient date palms germinated from 2,000 y old seeds

Seven date palm seeds (Phoenix dactylifera L.), radiocarbon dated from the fourth century BCE to the second century CE, were recovered from archaeological sites in the Southern Levant and germinated to yield viable plants. We conducted whole-genome sequencing of these germinated ancient samples and used single-nucleotide polymorphism data to examine the genetics of these previously extinct Judean date palms. We find that the oldest seeds from the fourth to first century BCE are related to modern West Asian date varieties, but later material from the second century BCE to second century CE showed increasing genetic affinities to present-day North African date palms. Population genomic analysis reveals that by ∼2,400 to 2,000 y ago, the P. dactylifera gene pool in the Eastern Mediterranean already contained introgressed segments from the Cretan palm Phoenix theophrasti, a crucial genetic feature of the modern North African date palm populations. The P. theophrasti introgression fraction content is generally higher in the later samples, while introgression tracts are longer in these ancient germinated date palms compared to modern North African varieties. These results provide insights into crop evolution arising from an analysis of plants originating from ancient germinated seeds and demonstrate what can be accomplished with the application of a resurrection genomics approach.

A new sesquiterpene from South African wild ginger (Siphonochilus aethiopicus (Schweinf) B.L. Burtt)

A new eusdesmane sesquiterpenoid, characterised as 5-acetoxy-9aβ-hydroxy-4aαH-3,5α, 8aβ-trimethyl-4, 4a, 6, 7, 8a, 9-hexahydronaphtho-([2, 3 b]-dihydrofuran-2-one)-8-one or phaeusmane F acetate (1) has been isolated from the rhizomes of the South African variety of wild ginger (iphonochilus aethiopicus (Schweinf) B.L. Burtt). The compound was obtained after a series of column and gel filtration chromatography. Its structure was elucidated by NMR and Mass-Spectrometric analyses, including 1 D-, 2 D-NMR and HR-LCMS. This is an initial report of the compound from a Siphonochilus sp. Previously isolated similar compounds from the plant material were 4aαH-3,5α,8aβ-trimethyl-4,4a,8a,9-tetrahydronaphtho[2,3b]-furan-8-one (siphonochilone) (2), 9aβ-hydroxy-4aαH-3,5α,8aβ-trimethyl-4,4a,8a,9-tetrahydronaphtho-([2,3b]-dihydrofuran-2-one)-8-one (3), 4aαH-3,5α,8aβ-trimethyl-4,4a,8a,9-tetrahydronaphtho-([2,3b]-dihydrofuran-2-one)-8-one (4), 2-hydroxy-4aαH-3,5α,8aβ-trimethyl-4,4a,8a,9-tetrahydro-naphtho[2,3b]- furan-8(5H)-one (5), 4aαH-3,5α,8aβ-trimethyl-4,4a,8a-trihydronaphtho-([2,3b]-dihydrofuran-2-one)-8-one (6).