The changing face of nutraceuticals – An overview

"Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food" were the words said around 2500 years ago by Hippocrates. Since ancient times mankind has believed in the role played by the appropriate amount of nutrition in maintaining proper health. The increasing concern of consumers regarding the potential toxic effects of synthetic drugs has helped the nutraceutical market to grow enormously in the past few years as consumers feel that it is a relatively safer way to good health. The market for these products is anticipated to increase even further in the years to come. However, there still exists ambiguity about the regulatory requirements related to nutraceuticals worldover. Stringent regulations related to the safety and efficacy of these products is imperative to create a conducive environment for the sustainable growth of the nutraceutical industry. This article attempts to trace the evolution of nutraceuticals over the years and a sneak peek into what may be the future of the nutraceutical industry. Key-Words: Nutraceuticals, Dietary supplements, Regulation of nutraceuticals, Phytochemicals, Functional foods. Introduction "Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food" These were words said around 2500 years ago by Hippocrates, the Father of medicine. Since ancient times, human beings have always looked at natural products as a major source of nutrition in addition to being a predominant source of prophylactic agents for the prevention and treatment of various diseases and ailments. The growing interest of consumers in dietary supplements, nutraceuticals, functional foods or whatever you may like to call it, based on the concept of “personalised medicine” for health maintenance, has enormously spurred the growth of market of these products in recent years. This overview attempts to provide a thorough account of the evolution of nutraceuticals and functional foods with an emphasis on the regulations related to these products. * Corresponding Author: E-mail: [email protected] Tel.: +91-820-2571-998/201 ext. 2248. Inception/ A Look into the history Since a long time, even before the development of “Nutrition” as a distinct scientific discipline, physicians paid close attention to the role of the daily diet in health maintenance. During the 16, 17 and 18 centuries, many crewmen on long voyages across the Seas often died because of scurvy. The 18 century sea captains (under the direction of the British Admiralty) explored the role of various foods and food practices in maintaining the health of seamen. Some foods provided the missing vitamins B and C, whereas others reduced the antiscorbutic effects of the seamen’s diet . Biomedical research during the past 20 years has revealed that diet plays an important role in the prevention and progression of many of the major chronic diseases, such as atherosclerosis and cancer (8, 41, 56, 35, . In 1989, The Foundation for Innovation in Medicine (New York, U.S.), an educational foundation established in the US to encourage discoveries in medicine, coined the term ‘‘Nutraceutical’’, to provide the much needed name for this rapidly growing area of biomedical research. Dr. Stephen DeFelice (1992) defined nutraceutical as “any substance that may be considered a food or part of a food and which provides medical or health benefits including the prevention and treatment of disease”. According to that definition the term Nutraceutical may include a whole range of products like isolated nutrients, dietary supplements, herbal products and other processed foods . Review Article [Shirwaikar et al., 2(7): July, 2011]