Many people in sub-Saharan Africa suffer from protein malnutrition; this results in negative health and economic impacts. Winged bean (Psophocarpus tetragonolobus (L.) DC.) is a tropical underutilized legume with beneficial nutritional characteristics such as high protein content, which may help to alleviate these problems. The proximate composition (fat, moisture content, crude protein, ash, and carbohydrate) and antinutrient (tannin and phytate) level of winged bean seeds and tubers were determined using 50 accessions. In the processed seeds, accession Tpt17 had the highest protein content (40.30%) and Tpt48 the lowest (34.18%). In the unprocessed seeds, Tpt17 also recorded the highest crude protein (31.13%) with Tpt125 having the lowest (28.43%). In the tubers, protein content ranged from 19.07% (Tpt42) to 12.26% (Tpt10). The moisture content in the processed seeds ranged from 8.51% (Tpt42) to 6.72% (Tpt6); in the unprocessed seeds, it was between 8.53% (Tpt53) and 3.76% (Tpt14). In the processed seeds, the values of ash ranged from 4.93% (Tpt126) to 4.45% (Tpt15-4); in the unprocessed seeds, it ranged from 4.98% (Tpt17) to 4.55% (Tpt125). In the processed seeds, the fat content ranged from 18.91% (Tpt51) to 14.09% (Tp43) while in the unprocessed seeds, the values ranged from 19.01% (Tpt15) to 13.87% (Tpt3-B). The crude fiber in the processed samples ranged from 13.82% (Tpt6) to 10.40% (Tpt125) while in the unprocessed seeds, it ranged from 7.29% in Tpt51 to 4.83% in Tpt11. Carbohydrate content in the processed seeds ranged from 26.30% (Tpt3-B) to 20.94% (Tpt125) and 39.76% in Tpt3-B to 34.53% in Tpt18 in the unprocessed seeds. The tannin and phytate contents showed remarkably significant differences. In the tubers harvested, significant variation was observed in the parameters evaluated. Winged bean flour could be formulated into various meals for children and adults to reduce malnutrition in sub-Saharan Africa.

African yam bean (Sphenostylis stenocarpa(Hochst ex. A. Rich.) Harms) is an annual legume with the capacity to produce bean seeds in a pod and produce tubers with varying seed patterns and colors. It is suggested to have the potential to significantly boost food security in sub-Saharan Africa due to its considerable nutritional qualities but still yet underutilized. Many farmers show limited interest in its production owing to limited knowledge of its nutritional profile, income generation capacity for small-holder farmers’, processing, and other related utilization concerns. This study evaluated the proximate and antinutrient composition of processed and unprocessed seeds of African yam bean (Sphenostylis stenocarpa(Hochst ex. A. Rich.) Harms.). Seeds were harvested from the experimental research field consisting of 50 accessions at the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), Ibadan, Nigeria. They were divided into two portions; the first was processed by oven drying at 60°C for 24 hours and the second was left raw. There were significant differences (P<0.05) in the levels of proximate and antinutrient in the forms in which the samples were analyzed. TSs104 had the highest protein content of 25.08%, while the lowest was TSs68 (20.50%). However, in the unprocessed seed, protein content ranged between 24.93% (TSs38) and 19.13% (TSs11). Both processed and unprocessed seeds had high carbohydrate contents. In processed seeds, TSs9 (62.93%) had the highest percentage and TSs1 (29.64%) recorded the lowest. In unprocessed seed, the percentage ranged between 67.36% (TSs4) and 54.23% (TSs38). The observed variation may suggest possible suitability of seed for various end-use products and targeted breeding programs for crop improvements. In sub-Saharan Africa, this lesser-known legume could be adapted as a promising food crop in combating protein-energy malnutrition.

Africa, home to the world’s second-largest population of approximately 1.3 billion, grapples with significant challenges in meeting its medical needs, particularly in accessing quality healthcare services and products. The continent faces a continuous onslaught of emerging infectious diseases, exacerbating the strain on its already fragile public health infrastructure. The COVID-19 crisis highlighted the urgency to build local vaccine production capacity and strengthen the health infrastructure in general. The risks associated with a heavy reliance on imported vaccines were exposed during the COVID-19 pandemic, necessitating the need to nurture and strengthen the local manufacturing of vaccines and therapeutic biologics. Various initiatives addressing training, manufacturing, and regulatory affairs are underway, and these require increasing dedicated and purposeful financial investment. Building vaccine manufacturing capacity requires substantial investment in training and infrastructure. This manuscript examines the current state of education in vaccinology and related sciences in Africa. It also provides an overview of the continent’s efforts to address educational needs in vaccine development and manufacturing. Additionally, it evaluates the initiatives aimed at strengthening vaccine education and literacy, highlighting successful approaches and ongoing challenges. By assessing the progress made and identifying the remaining obstacles, this review offers insights into how Africa can enhance its vaccine manufacturing capacity to respond to vaccine-preventable disease challenges.

Adegboyega TT, Abberton MT, Abdelgadir AH, Mahamadi D, Olaniyi OA, Ofodile S, Babalola OO. 2021. Variation in winged bean (Psophocarpus tetragonolobus) growth parameters, seed yield, nodulation, and nitrogen fixation. Asian J Agric 5: 61-71. Underutilized legumes are widely distributed in tropical agriculture and associated with low yield. Thus they have not really been fully explored due to lack of research investment, breeding programs targeting crop improvement, marketing, and low awareness of nutritional benefits. This study was conducted to determine the variation in growth parameters, seed yield, nodulation, and nitrogen fixation in winged bean (Psophocarpus tetragonolobus) germplasms. High genotypic and phenotypic coefficients of variances were observed in traits evaluated. The combined analysis of variance for five variables of 25-winged bean accessions showed that replication by year interaction was statistically significant (p ? 0.0001) for nodule parameters and dry shoot weight while it was not significant (p = > 0.05) for dry root weight, and total biomass. Significant variations (p = ? 0.05) were observed among the accessions on some growth parameters. The genetic variability of winged beans could be carefully exploited to provide higher grain yield, as well as other economic and important traits to boost food security and conservation of the plant genetic materials.

Background: Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) poses a significant global health threat, requiring effective antimicrobial susceptibility testing (AST) and surveillance systems. At the University Teaching Hospital of Butare (CHUB) in Rwanda, a baseline Laboratory Assessment of Antibiotic Resistance Testing Capacity (LAARC) identified critical gaps in the Laboratory Information System (LIS), including low capture rates for culture observation (60%) and AST data (25%), no standardization of AST panels (0%), and limited cumulative antibiogram generation (17%). Existing AMR surveillance platforms, such as the Information System for Monitoring Antimicrobial Resistance by the World Health Organization (WHO) Collaborating Center for Surveillance of Resistance to Antimicrobial Agents (WHONET), and the District Health Information System, operate as standalone systems separate from clinical workflows, which limits their real-time clinical utility. Objective: This study aimed to develop an enhanced, web-based LIS integrated within routine clinical care to improve AST reliability, enable real-time AMR surveillance at CHUB, and provide a scalable model for subnational and national surveillance networks in resource-limited settings, supporting antimicrobial stewardship. Methods: We developed an enhanced LIS using the OpenClinic GA, the current open-source hospital information system at CHUB, integrating Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI) and European Committee on Antimicrobial Susceptibility Testing (EUCAST) guidelines, and leveraging metadata from the AMR for R package, WHONET resources, and EUCAST Expert Rules. An agile development approach was used, incorporating a custom database schema, Java-based application programming interfaces (APIs), and web-based user interfaces. The system was designed to support minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) and disk diffusion (DD) methods, automate result interpretation with color-coded outputs, WHO Access, Watch, Reserve (AWaRe)–based cascade reporting, and enable data export to WHONET for global surveillance. Results: The enhanced LIS improved AST data capture and standardization, providing reliable, automated result interpretation and real-time AMR surveillance capabilities. The system’s web-based architecture enables scalability through centralized deployment, allowing multiple facilities simultaneous access. Unlike standalone surveillance tools, the enhanced LIS integrates AST within electronic medical records, maintaining clinical information continuity from specimen registration through result reporting. The system supports immediate clinical decision through AWaRe–based cascade reporting, and automated resistance phenotype detection, followed by standardized WHONET-compatible exports for public health surveillance. Conclusions: This scalable, LIS model demonstrates the feasibility of implementing standards-based AMR informatics in resource-limited settings. By embedding surveillance within clinical workflows rather than treating it as a separate downstream activity, the system maximizes data quality and clinical relevance while minimizing staff burden. The centralized web-based architecture provides inherent scalability from facility to national levels, eliminating data fragmentation and ensuring metadata consistency across networks. Long-term sustainability requires continuous user training, designated personnel for metadata maintenance, local IT capacity building, and funding mechanisms beyond donor dependency. This model provides a practical roadmap for national digital stewardship programs, supporting both immediate patient care and long-term public health surveillance goals.