Micronutrients such as selenium, fluoride, zinc, iron, and manganese are minerals that are crucial for many body homeostatic processes supplied at low levels. The importance of these micronutrients starts early in the human life cycle and continues across its different stages. Several studies have emphasized the critical role of a well-balanced micronutrient intake. However, the majority of studies looked into or examined such issues in relation to a specific element or life stage, with the majority merely reporting the effect of either excess or deficiency. Herein, in this review, we will look in depth at the orchestration of the main element requirements across the human life cycle beginning from fertility and pregnancy, passing through infancy, childhood, adolescence, and reaching adulthood and senility, with insight on the interactions among them and underlying action mechanisms. Emphasis is given towards approaches to the role of the different minerals in the life cycle, associated symptoms for under- or overdoses, and typical management for each element, with future perspectives. The effect of sex is also discussed for each micronutrient for each life stage as literature suffice to highlight the different daily requirements and or effects.

The consumption of raw fish has significantly increased worldwide over the last decade. Fermented and salted fish (FSF), such as feseekh, moloha, and renga, have a great popularity in Egypt, where they are considered the main dishes in different social events and festivities. Although FSF-dishes are popular, they present several health hazards including biological and chemical ones. These hazards are contaminants that might be present in the fish tissues and to be transmitted to humans causing food-borne illnesses, that is, botulism intoxication. For the sake of public health, methods of detecting and controlling these contaminants have been employed to regulate and control fish's safety and quality prior to consumption to ensure their safety and best quality. We highlighted the hazards, detection methods, critical control points, and control measures involved in the production of main Egyptian FSF. In this review, we also compile the research findings from the available literatures, with future perspectives related to the quality needed for producing a safe FSF. Our review concluded that hazard analysis critical control point (HACCP) system could also be utilized as a preventive measure likewise to guarantee FSF's safety to consumers. Future experiments are needed to determine the underlying mechanisms of microbial impact on the quality of FSF and the optimization of the fermentation process.

There is strong evidence on the anticancer properties of secolariciresinol diglucoside (SDG), the predominant flaxseed lignan, especially for mammary and prostatic carcinomas. Although the effect of cultivar and location on flaxseed SDG level has been reported, much less is traced regarding the influence of agronomical treatments. The purpose of this study is to determine if agricultural management practices could enhance SDG accumulation in flaxseed. We studied the effect of irrigation frequencies (I), added nutrients (N, zinc and humic acid) and fertilization treatments (F) and their interactions on SDG level and seed yield of the Egyptian flax cultivar Giza 9. Samples were extracted and analyzed for SDG, after alkaline hydrolysis, using HPLC-UV method. The concentration of SDG and its yield varied between 415.55-845.95 mg/100 g whole seeds and 1.77-4.05 Kg/feddan on a dry weight basis, respectively according to different agricultural treatments. I, N and F factors and their interactions had a significant effect on SDG. I × N × F interaction contributed to the majority of SDG variation (31.81 %), followed by I factor (27.96 %), whereas seed yield was more affected by F factor (72.7 %). The I × F interaction was the only significant interaction on the seed yield contributing only for 0.43% of the variance. Moderate irrigation frequency with the humic acid foliar application and mineral nitrogen fertilizer was the best combination for achieving the highest SDG levels. Using optimum agronomic practice would benefit the nutraceutical industry by optimizing flaxseed lignan content and hence enhancing its anticancer, health-promoting effect.

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Purpose: Carotenoids are potent natural antioxidants with many important applications. Their nanodispersion formulations can solve problems that may limit their usage. In this study, we produced carotenoid nanodispersions from extracted lutein (Nano-Lut), extracted β-carotene (Nano-EBc), and synthetic β-carotene (Nano-SBC). Methods: The present study has quantitatively emphasized the physicochemical, antioxidant, and cytotoxic properties of free and nanodispersed formulations of lutein and β-carotene. The nanodispersions were characterized by spectral absorption, dynamic light scattering, and zeta potential. Antioxidant and cytotoxicity assays were conducted for free and their nanodispersed forms. The cytotoxicity of free carotenoids and their nanodispersions was conducted on HSF, VERO, and BNL cell lines. Results: Nano-Lut has the smallest mean particle size (185.2 ± 40.5 nm, PDI of 0.183 ± 0.01, and zeta potential of -28.6 ± 6.4 mV). Nano-SBc showed monomodal size distribution (220.5 ± 30.09 nm, PDI of 0.318 ± 0.03, and zeta potential of -12.1 ± 5.9 mV), while Nano-EBc showed a bimodal size distribution (with a mean particle size of 498.3 ± 88.9 nm, PDI of 0.65 ± 0.08, and zeta potential of -39.7 ± 1.3 mV). All prepared nanodispersions showed less than 20% loss during the formulation process. Antioxidant assays showed that extracted lutein was the most active and synthetic β-carotene was the least. Cells showed higher tolerance for lutein and its nanodispersion than extracted or synthetic β-carotene either in free or nanodispersion forms. Conclusions: The study proved that lutein in nanodispersed form possesses the smallest size, the highest antioxidant activity, and the lowest cytotoxicity among the tested formulations.