Aly Farag El Sheikha

Prof. Dr. Aly Farag El Sheikha

School of Nutrition Sciences, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
+1
orcid
I am open to cooperating and to a new position

Research Focus & Metrics

Academic Career Length

18Years (2009-Present)

(Calculated once Scilit publication data is synced: current year − year of first publication + 1)

Representative Publications

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1 July 2020 in Journal of Functional Foods
Verified
Journal Article
Open access
SBSudhanshu S. Behera
Sudhanshu S. Behera
Aly Farag El SheikhaAly Farag El Sheikha
Aly Farag El Sheikha
Riadh HammamiRiadh Hammami
Riadh Hammami
Awanish KumarAwanish Kumar
Awanish Kumar

1 April 2022 in Foods
Verified
Journal Article
Open access
PDF file
Aly Farag El SheikhaAly Farag El Sheikha
Aly Farag El Sheikha
Ganoderma lucidum has a long history of medicinal uses in the Far East countries of more than 2000 years due to its healing properties. Recently, G. lucidum has come under scientific scrutiny to evaluate its content of bioactive components that affect human physiology, and has been exploited for potent components in the pharmacology, nutraceuticals, and cosmetics industries. For instance, evidence is accumulating on the potential of this mushroom species as a promising antiviral medicine for treating many viral diseases, such as dengue virus, enterovirus 71, and recently coronavirus disease of 2019 (COVID-19). Still, more research studies on the biotherapeutic components of G. lucidum are needed to ensure the safety and efficiency of G. lucidum and promote the development of commercial functional foods. This paper provides an extensive overview of the nutraceutical value of Ganoderma lucidum and the development of commercial functional food. Moreover, the geo-origin tracing strategies of this mushroom and its products are discussed, a highly important parameter to ensure product quality and safety. The discussed features will open new avenues and reveal more secrets to widely utilizing this mushroom in many industrial fields; i.e., pharmaceutical and nutritional ones, which will positively reflect the global economy.

28 October 2016 in Critical Reviews in Food Science and Nutrition
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Journal Article
Closed access
Aly Farag El SheikhaAly Farag El Sheikha
Aly Farag El Sheikha
RRRamesh C. Ray
Ramesh C. Ray
Sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas L.) is among the major food crops in the world and is cultivated in all tropical and subtropical regions particularly in Asia, Africa, and the Pacific. Asia and Africa regions account for 95% of the world's production. Among the root and tuber crops grown in the world, sweet potato ranks second after cassava. In previous decades, sweet potato represented food and feed security, now it offers income generation possibilities, through bioprocessing products. Bioprocessing of sweet potato offers novel opportunities to commercialize this crop by developing a number of functional foods and beverages such as sour starch, lacto-pickle, lacto-juice, soy sauce, acidophilus milk, sweet potato curd and yogurt, and alcoholic drinks through either solid state or submerged fermentation. Sweet potato tops, especially leaves are preserved as hay or silage. Sweet potato flour and bagassae are used as substrates for production of microbial protein, enzymes, organic acids, monosodium glutamate, chitosan, etc. Additionally, sweet potato is a promising candidate for production of bioethanol. This review deals with the development of various products from sweet potato by application of bioprocessing technology. To the best of our knowledge, there is no review paper on the potential impacts of the sweet potato bioprocessing.

24 June 2022 in Horticulturae
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Journal Article
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ZAZainab Albakry
Zainab Albakry
EKEMAD EMAD MOHAMED KARRAR
EMAD EMAD MOHAMED KARRAR
IAIsam Ahmed
Isam Ahmed
EOEmel Oz
Emel Oz
Charalampos ProestosCharalampos Proestos
Charalampos Proestos
XWXingguo Wang
Xingguo Wang
This study was to assess the nutritional quality and bioactive properties of black cumin (Nigella sativa L.) seeds and oil commonly found in the Chinese market. The results showed that black cumin seeds contain 5.02, 21.07, 39.02, 3.02, 6.01, and 25.86% moisture, crude proteins, crude fat, ash, fiber, and carbohydrates, respectively. It also contains substantial amounts of minerals, namely calcium, potassium, phosphorus, magnesium, sodium, iron, zinc, and copper. Glutamic acid (4.10 g/100 g protein) is the major amino acid of black cumin seeds. The major volatile components in black cumin seeds were thymoquinone (21.01%), o-cymene (18.23%), and β-thujene (17.22%). Cumin seed oil extracted by the soxhlet method contains high quantities of unsaturated fatty acids (UFA; 85.16%) and low amounts of saturated fatty acids (SFA; 15.02%). The major fatty acid of black cumin seed oil was linoleic acid (57.71%), followed by oleic acid (24.46%). The most prominent TAG of black cumin seed oils was oleoyl-dilinoleoyl-glycerol (OLL; 38.87%). In addition, the levels of α-tocopherol, β-tocopherol, γ-tocopherol, and total polyphenols in the black cumin seed oil were 25.59, 14.21, and 242.83 mg/100 g, and 315.68 mg GAE/kg, respectively, and possessed high antioxidant activity (DPPH IC50%, of 4.02 mg/mL). These findings demonstrate that black cumin seeds are nutritionally rich with high potential applications in the food, pharmaceutical, and cosmetic industries.

1 August 2018 in Trends in Food Science & Technology
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Journal Article
Closed access
Aly Farag El SheikhaAly Farag El Sheikha
Aly Farag El Sheikha
Dian-Ming HuDian-Ming Hu
Dian-Ming Hu

8 October 2018 in Critical Reviews in Food Science and Nutrition
Verified
Journal Article
Closed access
Aly Farag El SheikhaAly Farag El Sheikha
Aly Farag El Sheikha
Dian-Ming HuDian-Ming Hu
Dian-Ming Hu
Fermented foods were likely to have been the first among all types of processed foods consumed by human beings. The role that fermented food plays is not only related to the development of civilizations and cultural relationships between countries but also related to the nutritional importance of its population. Of course, the early manufacturers of fermented foods didn’t take into account the advantages of modern sciences, because enzymes and microorganisms were discovered just 150-200 years ago. For that reason, we can conclude why the ancient fermentation techniques were known to philosophers and alchemists, but not to biologists. It demonstrated that the fermentation mechanisms involved many secrets still undiscovered. Recently, applications of molecular techniques for analyzing and study the fermented foods have been explored. In this review, we provide answers with a critical vision to many questions for understanding the role of molecular techniques to discover the secrets of fermented foods such as how to evaluate the traditional fermented foods? Why using molecular techniques to study the fermented foods not else? Is the future will carry to us a boom in molecular technologies contribute to the detection of more secrets of the fermented food?