Food and Nutrition Sciences, 2015, 6, 179-193 Published Online January 2015 in SciRes. http://www.scirp.org/journal/fns http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/fns.2015.61019 How to cite this paper: Gad, A.S. and Sayd, A.F. (2015) Antioxidant Properties of Rosemary and Its Potential Uses as Natural Antioxidant in Dairy Products—A Review. Food and Nutrition Sciences, 6, 179-193. http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/fns.2015.61019 Antioxidant Properties of Rosemary and Its Potential Uses as Natural Antioxidant in Dairy Products—A Review Ahmed S. Gad * , Ahmed F. Sayd Dairy Science Department, National Research Centre, Cairo, Egypt Email: * asgad2004@yahoo.com Received 2 January 2015; accepted 20 January 2015; published 26 January 2015 Copyright © 2015 by authors and Scientific Research Publishing Inc. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution International License (CC BY). http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Abstract Dairy products contain lipids rich in polyunsaturated fatty acids and their esters are easily oxi- dized by molecular oxygen over time. Deleterious changes in dairy products caused by lipid oxida- tion include not only loss of flavour or development of off-flavours, but also loss of colour, nutrient value, and the accumulation of compounds, which may be detrimental to the health of consumers. One of the most effective ways of retarding lipid oxidation in dairy products is to incorporate an- tioxidants. Sometimes synthetic phenolic antioxidant, butylated hydroxyanisole (BHA) and buty- lated hydroxytoluene (BHT) are used to delay this oxidation. Supplementation dairy products with natural antioxidants (polyphenolic compounds) are better using than synthetic antioxidant and could be potentially. The use of rosemary as natural antioxidant in dairy products can reduce the rate of lipid oxidation and hydrolysis besides may be beneficial in increasing the shelf life of these products. This supplementation will move these products into the functional food area under new category as healthy dairy products. This literature review covers the research that has focused on rosemary as antioxidant and anti-inflammatory agent that can inhibit the lipid oxidation and have health benefits by preventing carcinogens from binding to DNA, fight and stop pain. In this review, we survey the previous studies that were conducted on the application of rosemary extract as an antioxidant to extend the shelf life and to minimize nutritional losses of dairy product. Keywords Autoxidation, Rosemary, Natural Antioxidants Agent, Anti-Inflammatory Agent Functional Dairy Products * Corresponding author.