Africa is a home to growing number of biosafety organisations that work to enhance public health in their nations by bringing attention to the significance of biosafety and biosecurity. Since many African countries are low-resource countries, they frequently confront a number of obstacles that seriously limit their ability to create or grow a sustainable capacity for managing biosafety and biosecurity. The goals of biosecurity and biosafety protocols are to reduce both intentional and unintentional biological risks that could have disastrous effects on a nation's health system, agriculture, security, political and economic stability. Regrettably, on a national, regional, and international level, biosecurity and biosafety are frequently given insufficient priority.Eventhough, Africa are home to a growing number of biosafety organisations that work to enhance public health in their nations by bringing attention to the significance of biosafety and biosecurity, Standard Biosafety and Biosecurity Measures to contain hazardous infections are missing across the African continent. In this paper the current state, challenges, and future prospects of biosafety and biosecurity status of African nations discussed.

Various species of plants, bacteria, fungi, insects, invertebrates, and vertebrate animals produce unique small molecules, peptides, or proteins (biomolecules) for their defensive purposes. These biomolecules, also known as toxins, are poisonous (toxic) to humans and could be misused due to relatively easy accessibility and affordability. Toxins are not contagious and replicative; their effect or symptoms depend on their concentration (dose), which can take hours to days after exposure. Furthermore, for nefarious actors, preparing low-effort homemade explosives (HMEs) using household items or easily accessible chemical precursors is not difficult. To mitigate the biosecurity risks, biological scientists, law enforcement investigators, and public health response professionals should be aware of the new threats and challenges posed by low-effort toxins and HMEs. The chemical and biological investigation, evidence, and countermeasures training program was aimed at preparing biological scientists, law enforcement investigators, and public health representatives to mitigate the biosecurity risks from low-effort toxins and HMEs. The tailor-made eight-day training program containing lectures, round table discussions, immersion scenarios, practical exercises, practical assessment, and tabletop exercises helped participants to understand and close their skill gaps. The training also covered various elements associated with chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, and explosive (CBRNE) threats from nefarious individuals and groups. Some highlights of the training are reported in this report.

The castor plant (Ricinus communis L.) has been known since time immemorial in traditional medicine in the pharmacopeia of Mediterranean and eastern ancient cultures. Moreover, it is still used in folk medicine worldwide. Castor bean has been mainly recommended as anti-inflammatory, anthelmintic, anti-bacterial, laxative, abortifacient, for wounds, ulcers, and many other indications. Many cases of human intoxication occurred accidentally or voluntarily with the ingestion of castor seeds or derivatives. Ricinus toxicity depends on several molecules, among them the most important is ricin, a protein belonging to the family of ribosome-inactivating proteins. Ricin is the most studied of this category of proteins and it is also known to the general public, having been used for biocrimes in several cases. Here, the main steps of ricin research are reported with particular regards to its enzymatic activity, structure and cytotoxicity. Moreover, we discuss ricin toxicity for animals and humans, as well as the relation amongst bioterrorism and ricin and its impact on environmental toxicity. Ricin has also been of great utility to develop a number of immunotoxins specific for the elimination of unwanted cells, mainly cancer cells; some of these immunotoxins gave promising results also in clinical trials.