Thesis (M.Sc.) - Cairo University - Faculty of Agriculture - Department of Agricultural Microbiology

Food poisoning results from contamination by a wide range of pathogenic microorganisms during food production and processing. Therefore, the use of preservative substances became a crucial issue in order to suppress the growth and proliferation of food-borne illnesses. Although the food factories were used to utilize chemical preservatives, nowadays the use of such chemicals is reduced due to the increased awareness about their adverse health impacts. Thus, the use of natural preservatives became of great interest; one of the best examples of these natural preservation agents are plant peels. The use of plant peels has dual benefits; first is their antimicrobial activity against food-borne pathogens, while the second is minimizing agro-industrial wastes. The target of this study was the evaluation of the antimicrobial effect of the extracts of three different fruit peels (pomegranate, orange and banana), the estimation of the best solvent (methanol and ethanol) to extract bioactive components of these peels and the determination of phytochemical assays of the different tested extracts

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