A Comprehensive Review on Nutraceuticals

Nutraceuticals have received considerable interest because of their presumed safety. Nutraceuticals are food or part of food that provides medical or health benefits including the prevention and/or treatment of a disease. These nutraceuticals help in combating some of the major health problems of the century such as obesity, cardiovascular diseases, cancer, osteoporosis, arthritis, diabetes, cholesterol etc. Nutraceutical has advantage over the medicine because they avoid side effect, have naturally dietary supplement, etc. Nutraceutical on the basis of their natural source, chemical grouping, categories into three key terms –nutrients, herbals, dietary supplements, etc. The most rapidly growing segments of the industry were dietary supplements (19.5 percent per year) and natural/herbal products (11.6 percent per year). Global nutraceutical market is estimated as USD 404.8billion by 2025. FDA regulated dietary supplements as foods to ensure that they were safe. In 2006, the Indian government passed Food Safety and Standard Act to regulate the nutraceutical industry. Herbal nutraceutical is used as a powerful instrument in maintaining health and to act against nutritionally induced acute and chronic diseases, thereby promoting optimal health, longevity, and quality of life. The Present article focuses on the need for adhere to the known healthy eating models, development of new nutraceuticals/functional foods/food supplements with novel health benefits, elucidation mechanisms of action of these products, to define the comprehensive aspects of nutraceutical. This article may act as a tool to abreast with the recent developments in nutraceutical research.