Agribusiness: how to start a small medium enterprise (SME) with zobo leaves.

Sorrel leaves popularly called zobo leaves is used to produce a healthy nutritious drink. Hibiscus sabdariffa commonly referred to as ( ZOBO LEAVES/sorrel leaves), has various uses and several benefits in man . 

Its referred to as zobo leaves and has found usefulness in treatment of hypertension, weight control, ant-inflammatory agent, diuretic and as a soothing tea. The leaves are also boiled,flavored and served as a refreshing drink,the leaves can also be used for preparation of jams,jellies and wine. 

The fiber from the plant have been used to make ropes as a substitute for jute bags. The leaves are known to be a good source of iron,calcium, niacin,vitamin C B vitamins,, carotene as well as manganese. 

The zobo leaves also contain protein,phosphorus,fat and fiber making it a perfect nutritional meal.

Zobo leaves are beneficial to man for health and wealth. The zobo leaves can be used to produce many products that have huge financial gains with minimal startup capital. The leaves can be used in the following ways to start an SME.

 1) Tea production.: The leaves are cleaned, dried and packed into tea bags such that the consumer draws the bags in the hot water. 

 The processed leaves can be packed and sold in fanciful packs,where consumers pour the packed leaves into boiling water and then sieve the leaves out of the pot and drink.

 

The leaves can also be cleaned, sorted and packed in teabags 

Tea bags materials can be sourced here

 2) Flavored drinks: The leaves are cleaned,washed and then boiled. The drink is filtered when cool and different flavors are added. 

The flavors are either natural or sweeteners depending on your market. Sugar is the most common sweetener but  the drink can be flavored with ginger, watermelon,strawberry or oranges. This can be packed in bottles or sachets for school children.

3) lollipops/Popsicle: can also be made using the zobo leaves. The leaves are picked and washed then boiled. The filtered drink is flavored and poured into the Popsicle maker to make a healthy treat for kids. 

The lollipops can be made without the Popsicle maker by using cups.The drink is poured in the cups,then the stalk/holder is set in the cup and frozen. 

The lollipops are removed from cup when fully set. #money #agribusiness #entrepreneur #Agribusiness, #zobo #businessdevelopment

A visual database of human plasma compounds.

A visual database of human plasma compounds.Researchers have created a database of metabolites from blood samples collected from over 5,000 Japanese volunteers, making it freely available online as a valuable resource for researchers around the world. Metabolites and proteins control many of the processes inside our bodies, and also inform the interaction between our cells and their surroundings. Understanding these compounds and how they relate to each other more, could help researchers to evaluate the health state of people and develop new personalised treatments for various diseases.

Heroic rats detect land mines and now they might help save an endangered anteater.

Heroic rats detect land mines and now they might help save an endangered anteater.The pangolin, an endangered anteater that is one of the world’s most poached animals, could use a hero. Fortunately, a big rat is training for the job. Actually, 11 African giant pouched rats are. At a research center in central Tanzania, the 2-foot-long rodents are learning to detect the smell of pangolins’ armor-like scales, which are smuggled to Asia for use in sham traditional remedies. If the rats succeed, they and their twitching noses could eventually deploy to ports, national park borders and even highways to sniff out illegal shipments and help bust traffickers. The species already has a strong track record in detection. The Belgian organization APOPO has been training their “heroRATS” to find land mines for 20 years, and it says the animals have helped clear more than 100,000 mines from former war zones. In the past decade, the rats have been used to detect tuberculosis, a highly infectious disease that public health facilities often miss. They can screen 100 mucus samples in 20 minutes — a job that would take clinics four days — and APOPO says they’ve boosted TB detection by 40 percent at the clinics they work

Female reindeer's pull Santa's sleigh..

Santa, turns out, did some savvy hiring of his prancing parade,he got female reindeer's pull his sleigh. The male reindeer shed their antlers at the end of the mating season in early December, while females sport their thinner antlers throughout the winter.Sounds like Rudolph and the gang were all gals. "It appears that way," said physiologist Perry Barboza of the Institute of Arctic Biology, University of Alaska at Fairbanks, who studies reindeer and their closest cousins, caribou. Scientists consider reindeer and caribou the same species. While all reindeer would be equipped for an Arctic journey, though a flightless one, females might have the edge over their male counterparts.When the Christmas journey rolls around, male reindeer carry as low as 5 percent body fat, having lost much of their fatty stores during the energy-sapping mating season. Female reindeer, however, enter winter with about 50 percent body fat, making them "seals on hooves," Barboza said. The fat, which can be a couple of inches thick on their rumps, keeps the reindeer toasty in temperatures as low as minus 45 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 43 degrees Celsius). Which leaves us wondering, however, how they can be "faster than eagles," as legend has it. Santa's reindeer have another hoof up on other animal sleigh pullers: They can see in the ultraviolet range of the electromagnetic spectrum, something humans (and Santa) can't do. This vision ability will come in handy in the winter, said researchers who published a review of reindeer research in the journal Frontiers for Young Minds in 2015.

Tail vaccinations in cats to prevent cancer.

Tail vaccinations in cats to prevent cancer. It’s estimated that about 1 to 10 out of every 10,000 cats vaccinated will develop cancer at the injection site. If 1000 cats are vaccinated, then we are looking at hundreds of cats each year developing vaccine associated sarcomas. These sarcomas are usually difficult to treat and researchers have associated these sarcomas to rabies and feline leukemia vaccines. A university of Florida study has shown how to reduce incidence of sarcomas in cats. The study changed injection site to the tail and it worked.The University of Florida, study suggests that tail vaccinations are a good alternative to rear leg vaccinations. The University of Florida veterinarians studied 60 cats,and they studied two parameters. 1)is it possible to use the tail? and 2) will it provide immunity? The study suggests that there are no significant differences in the behavior of the cats that receive vaccinations below the knee and in the tail. The result showed that 99% of cats that received the tail vaccines developed protective antibody titres. The researchers came to the conclusion that tail vaccines work and are well tolerated. The researchers further opined that in case a sarcoma develops on the tail, a simple procedure to remove it is easy,safe and effective.

Traffic-monitoring tech will make cities smarter and safer.

Traffic-monitoring tech will make cities smarter and safer. Technology has simplified life and daily activities but this can be taken a step further to our roads. Traffic gridlock is common in most developed and developing countries,the difference is management of such gridlock. Data is life,and it is been used to monitor activities on the road to prevent logjams and ensure free flow of data. The data revolution can save a lot of wasted hours in traffic thus creating a peaceful conducive atmosphere for work and business. How to use data to ease traffic : the first step will be to a) identify the zone you are interested in. b) get data of vehicles that ply the route per time .c) mine this data,and create a prototype of traffic during the peak and low periods.d) then fashion out alternate routes,detours,back-roads and link -roads and bridges to prevent gridlocks. This technology can be implemented easily in Nigeria to save the commuters from unnecessary pain, imagine you in traffic for 3-4 hrs just to get to your office #Ajah ,not cool at all. Technology at our disposal, #moving ahead #2018. A company waycare is taking the #bulls by the horns,they are making sure that Speed limits, crashes and bumper-to-bumper traffic may become a thing of the past. Waycare is helping to put the smarts into smart cities by monitoring everything to do with traffic flow – traffic lights, road sensors, security cameras and data sent from connected cars. Waycare consolidates and makes sense of all that data for a city’s traffic management center.

Israel’s Waycare – already in use in Las Vegas - helps monitor everything to do with traffic flow, from traffic lights, to road sensors, security cameras and data sent from connected cars.#data #bigdata

Hyperbaric oxygen therapy could ease Alzheimer’s symptoms.

Hyperbaric oxygen therapy could ease Alzheimer’s symptoms.According to Israeli researchers, this therapy has potential to improve behavioral and physical problems associated with the disease. This revolutionary treatment for Alzheimer’s disease uses a hyperbaric oxygen chamber, which has been shown in the past to be extremely effective in treating wounds that were slow to heal,according to Prof. Uri Ashery of TAU’s Sagol School of Neuroscience and the Faculty of Life Sciences, who led the research for the study. Hyperbaric oxygen therapy, prescribed for conditions including embolisms, burns, carbon monoxide poisoning, decompression sickness and fibromyalgia, involves breathing in pure oxygen in a pressurized room or chamber. In this chamber, the air pressure is increased to twice that of normal air. Under these conditions, oxygen solubility in the blood increases and is transported by blood vessels throughout the body. The added oxygen stimulates the release of growth factors and stem cells, which promote healing.