Nutraceuticals:A Review

Nutraceuticals are bio active substances and the constituents are either of known therapeutic activity or are chemically defined substance generally accepted to contribute substantially to the therapeutic activity of the drug. Nutraceuticals have received considerable interest because of their presumed safety and potential nutritional and therapeutic effects. The concept of nutraceutical was stared from the survey in U.K., Germany and France which concluded that diet is rated more highly by consumers than exercise or hereditary factors for achieving good health. 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.