NUTRACEUTICALS: IMPORTANCE AND ADVANCES IN MEDICINE AND HEALTH

Abstract

Nutraceutical is a term coined to describe substances which are not traditionally recognized nutrients but which have positive physiological effects on the human body. They do not easily fall into the legal category of food and drug and often inhabit a grey area between the two. Risk of toxicity or adverse effect of drugs led us to consider safer nutraceutical and functional food based approaches for the health management. This resulted in a world wide nutraceutical revolution. The nutraceutical revolution will lead us into a new era of medicine and health, in which the food industry will become a research, oriented one similar to the pharmaceutical industry.