Background and Objective: The benefits of using natural colors in foods are many such as they are strong antioxidant, safe and get from renewable sources. Generally natural pigments do not cause any health problems; conversely, they may act as a health improvement. So, the objectives of this study are using natural colors and antioxidant from aqueous extracts of red cabbage and turmeric in the preparation of stirred yogurt. In addition, study the effects of these extracts on the quality characteristic of the obtained stirred yogurt. Methodology: Four natural extracts were prepared by using only distilled water; red cabbage juice, aqueous extracts of anthocyanin, aqueous extracts of turmeric and aqueous extract of curcumin. The inoculated milk was dived into five portions, control and four treatments fortified with 10% of prepared natural color extracts. All samples were incubated at 43°C until full coagulation and the containers were transferred to the refrigerator overnight. The yogurt samples then stirred and stored in the refrigerator at 7° ± 1°C. Chemical, microbiological, antioxidant activity and organoleptic evaluations were carried out after that. Results and Conclusion: The inclusions of red cabbage and turmeric extracts in the stirred yogurt resulted in products with appropriate and acceptable physicochemical, microbiological and sensory attributes. Aqueous extract of anthocyanin from red cabbage is the best extract, followed by the curcumin extract. These extracts were best known for their health benefits for humans and recommended to use in stirred yogurt and another dairy products.

In this work the researcher is looking for natural, new, safe, cheap and available compounds that can be used as antimicrobial and antioxidant in the medical and agricultural fields. A sulfated polysaccharide, Ulvan was extracted from Ulva lactuca and purified by cold or hot water-extraction and ethanol-precipitation with yield = 5:10% (w-w). Its appearance and touch like gel. Characterization of active groups of Ulvan was achieved by FT-IR spectroscopy, its content of sulfate = 3.998% (w-w) was determined by Ion Chromatography (IC), its molecular weight = 532.221 Kilo Daltons was determined by Gel permeation chromatography, its thermal stability was evaluated by DSC-TGA, its viscosity = 18 was determined by viscometer apparatus and its antimicrobial activity was studied against human, plant, animal, fish and poultry pathogens. Ulvan showed antioxidant activity with IC50 = 3.04 mg/ml. Its biological activity as an antioxidant and antimicrobial may be a good indication for the use of Ulvan against various pathogens as a preservative in food processing and cosmetics and as antioxidant and antimicrobial in medicine against human pathogen.

In this era, we must synthesize safe pesticides from inexpensive sources to avoid the diseases caused by most of the previously used pesticides. Therefore, nanotechnology was used to produce biologically synthesis pesticides from very cheap sources such as seaweed, especially green algae, as it is safe to synthesize a pesticide against various pests such as bacteria and fungi that affect various agricultural crops. Ulva lactuca is used for the biosynthesis of silver nanoparticles by a bottom-up bioreduction reaction of silver nitrate to silver nanoparticles (Ag-NPs) observed by the formation of brown color. The biosynthesis reaction has been proven by using UV-VIS, FT-IR, EDAX, SEM, TEM, and DSC-TGA and has been tested against a wide range of bacteria and fungi that affect plants, poultry, fish, rabbits, animals, and humans. Antioxidant activity was also determined. Silver nanoparticles (Ag-NPs) have proven to be good and safe synthetic pesticides. The results of the spectroscopy demonstrated the success of the biological synthesis of the pesticide. Also, the results of the antimicrobial activity demonstrated the success of the pesticide that was biologically synthesized to fight bacteria and fungi that cause different diseases of different agricultural crops and should be used as a safe synthetic pesticide.

Protecting food from the corruption caused by different microbes is a big problem, as we need safe methods for food packaging. In this study, Ulvan (U), edible sulfated polysaccharide extracted from Ulva lactuca, was mediated for the first time non-toxic biosynthesized silver nanoparticles (Ag-NPs) to produce new and safe bio-nanocomposite films called (U/Ag-NPs) films for active food packaging. Ulvan was extracted by hot waterextraction and ethanol-precipitation method and was characterized by FT-IR spectroscopy. Biosynthesis of silver nanoparticles using U. lactuca was proven by Ultra Violet-Visible (UV-VIS), Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) and Transmission Electron Microscope (TEM) analyses. Investigation of films was by incorporation 1m M of Ag-NPs into different concentrations of ulvan (3, 6 and 12%, w/v). The formation of bionanocomposite films was confirmed by FTIR-ATR spectroscopy and TEM analysis. Bio-nanocomposite films were further characterized by physical parameters as water vapor permeability (1.18±0.07, 0.9±0.09 and 0.55±0.1 10 −8 g mm cm −2 h −1 Pa −1), film thickness (0.01, 0.03 and 0.08 mm) and contact angle measurements (70.833, 81.066 and 109.066) respectively. The bio-nanocomposite films also showed high antimicrobial activity using Kirby-Bauer method as antibacterial and good antioxidant activity with IC50 = 1.128 µg/ml. (U/Ag-NPs) bio-nanocomposite films exhibited good chemical and physical properties, antioxidant and antimicrobial activities making them a potential substitute for active food packaging to extend shelf-life of foods during processing, transportation and storage with no harm as previous packaging methods.

Until now, researchers searching for compounds that contribute for treating the most serious disease of this age, cancer. Researchers hope to contribute to this through this research. Activities of both Ulvan extracted from Ulva lactuca and silver nanoparticles (Ag-NPs) were examined against seven different cancer cell types called (Caco2 cells, A549 cells, Mcf7 cells, Hep2 cells, HepG2 cells, PC3 cells, HELA cells). Green synthesized Ag-NPs; via Ulva Lactuca; was characterized by UV-VIS, SEM and TEM. Cell viability assay was conducted to study cytotoxicity effects of both Ulvan and Ag-NPs treatments. RTPCR; using different sense and antisense primers; was carried out to study the expression of GAPDH, Bcl-2, Bax, P21 and P53 (apoptosis related genes) in treated cell lines. SEM and TEM showed that Ag-NPs shape is spherical with average size of 3.89-55 nm. Also, cell viability study showed that both Ulvan and Ag-NPs have cytotoxicity effects on different cancer cells. However, Ag-NPs are more effective than Ulvan. Gene expression data illustrated that both treatments induced down-regulation of Bcl2 and induced up-regulation of P53 genes. This work showed that both Ulvan and Ag-NPs have activities against the investigated cancer cell types.