Abstract

NUTRACEUTICALS: AN OVERVIEW

Nikita D. Gidde*, Manojkumar M. Nitalikar, Kalyani V. Gaikwad, Ruksar S. Mistry and Snehal S. Jadhav

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Abstract

Traditional use of medicines is recognized as a way to learn about potential future medicines. The World Health Organization estimates that 80 percent of the world's population presently uses herbal medicine for some aspect of primary health care. Nutraceuticals are the hybrid of „Nutrition‟ and „Pharmaceutical‟. nutraceutical refers to food having a medical effect on the health of human being.it consist of food supplements, herbal Products, Probotics and prebiotics,medical food meant for prevention and tratment of diseases.In recent years there is a growing interest in nutraceuticals which provide health benefits and are alternative to modern medicine. Nutrients, herbals and dietary supplements are major constituents of nutraceuticals which make them instrumental in maintaining health, act against various disease conditions and thus promote the quality of life.these nutraceuticals help in combating some of the major health problems such as obesity, cardiovascular diseases, cancer, osteoporosis, arthrities, cholesterol . In whole, „Nutraceutical‟ has led to the new era of medicine and health, in which the food industry has become a research-oriented sector.

Keywords: Nutraceutical, Dietary supplements, antioxidants, prebiotics, Nutrition.