Fermented foods such as Tempe represent a technological alternative for a great variety of legumes and combination of them to improve their nutritional quality and to obtain edible products with palatable sensorial characteristics. The chemical composition, carbohydrate fraction and nitrogenous constituents were investigated for individual different legumes, i.e. faba bean; lupine, chickpea; peas and their mixture before and after fermentation by Rhizopus oligosporus. Tempe had a higher (P < 0.05) protein and fibre content compared with legume mixtures before fermentation, while it had a lower fat, ash and carbohydrate contents. Also, reducing and non-reducing sugars, stachyose as well as raffinose were reduced after fermentation of legume mixtures. A significant reduction was observed in non-protein nitrogen and protein nitrogen, while total nitrogen and true protein were increased.

Herein, four endophytic fungal strains living in healthy roots of garlic were used to produce selenium nanoparticles (Se-NPs) via green synthesis. Penicillium verhagenii was found to be the most efficient Se-NPs producer with a ruby red color that showed maximum surface plasmon resonance at 270 nm. The as-formed Se-NPs were crystalline, spherical, and well-arranged without aggregation, and ranged from 25 to 75 nm in size with a zeta potential value of −32 mV, indicating high stability. Concentration-dependent biomedical activities of the P. verhagenii-based Se-NPs were observed, including promising antimicrobial activity against different pathogens (Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Bacillus subtilis, Staphylococcus aureus, Candida albicans, C. glabrata, C. tropicalis, and C. parapsilosis) with minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) of 12.5–100 µg mL–1. The biosynthesized Se-NPs showed high antioxidant activity with DPPH-scavenging percentages of 86.8 ± 0.6% at a concentration of 1000 µg mL–1 and decreased to 19.3 ± 4.5% at 1.95 µg mL–1. Interestingly, the Se-NPs also showed anticancer activity against PC3 and MCF7 cell lines with IC50 of 225.7 ± 3.6 and 283.8 ± 7.5 µg mL–1, respectively while it is remaining biocompatible with normal WI38 and Vero cell lines. Additionally, the green synthesized Se-NPs were effective against instar larvae of a medical insect, Aedes albopictus with maximum mortality of 85.1 ± 3.1, 67.2 ± 1.2, 62.10 ± 1.4, and 51.0 ± 1.0% at a concentration of 50 µg mL–1 for I, II, III, and IV-instar larva, respectively. These data highlight the efficacy of endophytic fungal strains for cost-effective and eco-friendly Se-NPs synthesis with different applications.

The purpose of this study was to figure out catfish meat's chemical composition, mineral content, amino acid composition, and fatty acid profile. Moisture, protein, lipid, and ash content were measured at 71.30%, 19.03%, 8.10%, and 1.5%, respectively. Catfish meat had higher levels of calcium, phosphorus, and iron, with 304.82, 279.45 and 17.03 mg/100 g, respectively. The essential amino acid content was 41.81 g/100g protein. Oleic, linoleic, and palmitic acids were the most common fatty acids present in catfish meat. Oleic acid made up more than a third of the fatty acid content in catfish meat. Because of its high oleic acid content, catfish meat should be considered because it has been linked to a lower risk of cardiovascular disease.

Background The overuse of antibiotics leads to the emergence of antibiotic-resistant microbes which causes high mortality worldwide. Therefore, the synthesis of new active compounds has multifunctional activities are the main challenge. Nanotechnology provides a solution for this issue. Method The endophytic fungal strain Aspergillus terreus BR.1 was isolated from the healthy root of Allium sativum and identified using internal transcribed spacer (ITS) sequence analysis. The copper oxide nanoparticles (CuO-NPs) were synthesized by harnessing the metabolites of the endophytic fungal strain. The UV-Visble spectroscopy, Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), Transmission electron micrscopy (TEM), Energy dispersive X-ray (EDX), X-ray diffraction (XRD), Dynamic light scattering (DLS), and zeta potential (ζ) were used for the characterization of synthesized CuO-NPs. The activity against different pathogenic bacteria and Candida species were investigated by agar well-diffusion method. The biocombatibility and anticancer activity were assessed by MTT assay method. The scavenging of DPPH was used to investigate the antioxidant activity of synthesized CuO-NPs. Results Data showed the successful formation of crystalline nature and spherical shape CuO-NPs with sizes in the ranges of 15–55 nm. The EDX reveals that the as-formed sample contains ions of C, O, Cl, and Cu with weight percentages of 18.7, 23.82, 11.31, and 46.17%, respectively. The DLS and ζ-potential showed high homogeneity and high stability of synthesized CuO-NPs with a polydispersity index (PDI) of 0.362 and ζ-value of − 26.6 mV. The synthesized CuO-NPs exhibited promising antibacterial and anti-Candida activity (concentration-dependent) with minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) values in the ranges of 25–50 µg mL–1. Moreover, the fungal mediated-CuO-NPs targeted cancer cells of MCF7 and PC3 at low IC50 concentrations of 159.2 ± 4.5 and 116.2 ± 3.6 µg mL–1, respectively as compared to normal cells (Vero and Wi38 with IC50 value of 220.6 ± 3.7 and 229.5 ± 2.1 µg mL–1, respectively). The biosynthesized CuO-NPs showed antioxidant activity as detected by the DPPH method with scavenging percentages of 80.5 ± 1.2% at a concentration of 1000 µg mL–1 and decreased to 20.4 ± 4.2% at 1.9 µg mL–1 as compared to ascorbic acid (control) with scavenging activity of 97.3 ± 0.2 and 37.5 ± 1.3% at the same concentrations, respectively. Conclusion The fungal mediated-CuO-NPs exhibited promising activity and can be integrated into various biomedical and theraputic applications.

Moringa oleifera is a tree of a not well-understood plant since it has not been fully studied all over the world. Thus, the aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of the addition of Moringa oleifera leaves powder (MOLP) on the biological, physiochemical, and sensory evaluation of hard biscuits. MOLP can be used as a functional food ingredient for both food and organic applications. The proximate analysis showed that Moringa leaves are rich in fiber, protein, carbohydrate, and ash (13.68, 21.60, 54.83, and 4.07 g/100 g, respectively). Moringa oleifera leaves are a reliable source of essential minerals such as Na (09.10), K (20.82), Mg (03.36), Ca (19.30) and Fe (18.64) mg/100 g. The amino acid composition of MOLP contained 8 essential and 9 nonessential amino acids, an d the percentage of these was determined. The total phenolic content was 52 mg GAE/g. Meanwhile, the antioxidant activity was 85%. HPLC analysis of phenolic acids and flavonoids was performed. The proximate analysis and mineral composition of biscuits fortified with 0.5, 1, 1.5 and 2% MOLP showed that all treatments increased the mineral, protein, and amino acid contents by increasing the percentage of Moringa leaves powder compared with the control. Sensory accepts up to 1.5% of MOLP with a hard biscuit. MOLP decreased glucose levels at different concentrations compared to the control, while hemoglobin levels increased with increasing Moringa leaves. A similar test was observed for body weight. The results have shown the possibility of using dried Moringa oleifera leaves powder to improve the nutritional values of hard biscuits with sensory acceptability and biological effects .

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This work aims to study the effect of smoking methods (traditional and liquid flavouring) on the quality of whole and gutted mullet products and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) contents, which may represent carcinogenicity agent for consumer. Also, physico-chemical, bacteriological and sensorial characteristics were determined. Results showed that there was loss in both water and protein content of smoked fish while the content of lipid, salt and ash were increased. In addition, the values of total volatile basic nitrogen (TVB-N), Trimethylamine nitrogen (TMAN) and thiobarbituric acid (TBA) were increased clearly in the samples smoked by traditional method comparing with those smoked by liquid method. Concerning PAHs, it was found 5 components in raw fish flesh and its concentration was bout 0.78 µg/kg, and then increased to 9 components after smoking to record 13.37 and 1.72 µg/kg flesh of whole fish smoked by traditional and liquid methods, respectively. The corresponding concentrations of gutted samples smoked by the same previous methods were about 16.36 and 1.80 µg/kg flesh, respectively. Besides, total viable count and halophilic bacteria were decreased in all smoked samples in particularly in gutted samples smoked by traditional method. Moreover, although the traditionally-smoked samples gave high scores for colour, taste and overall acceptability but it contained high level of harmful PAHs as compared with those smoked by liquid method. In conclusion, the authors recommended that smoking of whole and gutted mullet fish by using the liquid method, since, it gave satisfied product characterized with good physico-chemical, bacteriological and sensory attributes with minimum content of PAHs especially with smoked gutted fish as compared with the traditional method.

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