CW-Department of Chemistry
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Browsing CW-Department of Chemistry by Author "Murungi, J."
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Item Animal feed suppliment from avocado residue and other locally available materials(Kenyatta University, 2009) Ndungu, E.; Gitome, J.; Wanjau, R.; Murungi, J.; Makibia, J.Kenya's population has been on the increase, and more than 15 million people are poor and live in rural Kenya. Of these, 70% are women, who are particularly vulnerable because they do not have equal access to social economic assets thus widening economic gap and rising poverty levels that erode self-esteem and growth in education, health, food security and employment. Most of the poor people are farmers who, apart from growing crops for subsistence, majority of them also keep livestock as a major source of farm income and manure. Proper feeding of the animals is a critical input in productivity as feeding alone accounts for about 40% of production cost or more depending on the sources of feeds and feed ingredients. The available feeds used by farmers including plant residual and napier grass do not meet all the needs of the cattle kept by most farmers which compromises the productivity of the animals leading to low income for the farmer. In order to improve and empower the small holder farmer, there is need to come up with technologies that. can improve their lives. This project aimed at reducing poverty in Evurore division in Mbeere District, by training the locals to prepare animal feed supplement, using locally available avocados. Avocado is one of the most commonly grown farm products in area and is available throughout the year. The fruit is mainly used as a salad fruit and a source of oil for cosmetic products as well as fuel. The seed and the peels of the avocado fruit have not been fully exploited and are normally thrown away with the garbage. This project was designed to come up with an economical way of producing commercial feed supplement using avocado peels and seed as well as other locally available materials in order to curb the problem of low animal feed resources for livestock. The avocado peels and seeds were analyzed for the levels of essential minerals using atomic absorption spectrometry (AAS) and were found to have substantial amounts of the minerals. The produced animal feed supplement will be used as a source of essential macro and micro nutrients which improve health and productivity of the livestock and consequently that of the farmers. The efficacy of the feed developed will be tested by feeding rats and comparing the results with those of commercially available feed concentrates .Item Comparative determination of heavy metals bioaccumulation in bamboo as a phytoremediative process to polluted riverine wetlands(Kenyatta University, 2009) Orina, B.G.; Anyango, S.O.; Wanjau, R.; Murungi, J.Nairobi's unplanned settlements have resulted into open drained domestic and industrial waste into tributaries that join the larger Nairobi River at different stages of its development. Polluted water, to is either directly taken up by planted riverine crops or used through irrigation by the residents. Crop production acts as an important commercial venture for the communities living around the basin. Bioaccumulation of heavy metals such as Zn, Cu, Cd and Pb is evident in these crops causing a health risk to urban consumers. Rehabilitating these wetlands with alternative plant species that reinstate purification, not consumed as food with significant commercial value is therefore urgently needed. Bamboo, due to its growth characteristics and heavy metal accumulation tendencies could serve to uptake heavy metals from polluted aquatic ecosystems and also provide an income generating alternative. four species of bamboo; water bamboo, giant bamboo (Dendrocalamus gingateus), yellow and green bamboo (Bambusa spp) and other plants were grown on potted polluted soils from Motoine riverine, and the accumulated levels of Zn, Cu, Pb and Cd were determined at regular intervals. The results showed that bamboo averagely absorbs 243 mg/kg of Zn, 1.3 mg of Cd, 222 mg/kg of Cu and 36 mg/kg of Pb annually in its initial years. Significant correlations were observed between heavy metal concentrations in the soils after the harvests and the bioaccumulations in the bamboo species (P>0.05, DF12, t-test). Very high correlations between reducing soil heavy metal contents and increasing bamboo heavy metal accumulation (r = -0.788).therefore due to the first growth rate and large biomass index, bamboo forms a good plant for bio filtration of these heavy metals. Bamboo production per year is estimated to be between 30-75 tons/ha per year. The total absorption therefore translates to 6.66-16.65 kg of Zn, 7.29- 18.23 kg of Cu, 1.08-2.7kg of Pb, 39-97.5g of Cd per ha/ year. The study recommends building up of bamboo systems along Motoine River in Kibera as a purifying model and substituting them for commercial edible vegetation in slums around wetlands a viable option.