INTRODUCTION The term “nutraceutical” was coined from “nutrition” and “pharmaceutical” in 1989 by Stephen DeFelice, MD, founder and chairman of the Foundation for Innovation in Medicine (FIM), Cranford, NJ.1 According to DeFelice, nutraceutical can be defined as, “a food (or part of a food) that provides medical or health benefits, including the prevention and/or treatment of a disease.”[1]. As this defiantion given by De Felice was not sufficient enough to distinhguish between the nutraceuticals anf funmctional foods , so Kalara redefined [7] When food is being cooked or prepared using “scientific intelligence” with or without knowledge of how or why it is being used, the food is called “functional food.” Thus, functional food provides the body with the required amount of vitamins, fats, proteins, carbohydrates, etc, needed for its healthy survival. When functional food aids in the prevention and/or treatment of disease(s) and/or disorder(s) other than anemia, it is called a nutraceutical. (Since most of the functional foods act in some way or the other as antianemic, the exception to anemia is considered so as to have a clear distinction between the two terms, functional food and nutraceutical.) Thus, a functional food for one consumer can act as a nutraceutical for another consumer. Examples of nutraceuticals include fortified dairy products (eg, milk) and citrus fruits (eg, orange juice).By reference to basic knowledge in sciences /scientific intelligence , such a development requires the identification and, at least partly, the understanding of the mechanism(s) by which a potential functional food or functional food component modulates target function(s) that is/are recognized or proven to be relevant to the state of well-being and health, and/or the reduction of a disease risk.[8] Nutraceuticals are foods or food ingredients that provide medical or health benefits. This emerging class of products blurs the line between food and drugs .They do not easily fall into the legal categories of food or drug and often inhabit a grey area between the two. Within European Union (EU) law the legal categorization of a nutraceutical is, in general, made on the basis of its accepted effects on the body. Thus, if the substance contributes only to the maintenance of healthy tissues and organs it may be considered to be a food ingredient. If, however, it can be shown to have a modifying effect on one or more of the body’s physiological processes, it is likely to be considered to be a medicinal substance (Figure 2) .Within European Medicines law a nutraceutical can be defined as a medicine for two reasons: 1) It can used for the prevention, treatment or cure of a condition or disease or 2) It can be administered with a view to restoring, correcting or modifying physiological functions in human beings. [2] They are classified in two ways [3]: • Potential nutraceuticals • Established nutraceuticals A potential nutraceutical is one that holds a promise of a particular health or medical benefit; such a potential nutraceutical only becomes an established one after there are sufficient clinical data to demonstrate such a benefit. The food products used as nutraceutical are categorized as 1. Based on chemical constituents (a) Nutrients • Substances with established nutritional functions, such as vitamins, minerals, amino acids and fatty acids. Eg: Vitamin A Antioxidant, essential, for growth and development and in the treatment of certain skin disorders, Vitamin E Antioxidant, helps form blood cells, muscles, lung and nerve tissue, boosts the immune system. (b) Herbals : Herbs or botanical products as concentrates and extracts. Eg:Garlic (Allium sativum L.) Antibacterial, antifungal, antithrombotic, hypotensive anti-infl ammatory. Ginger (Zingiber offi cinale Rosc.) Carminative, antiemetic, cholagogue, positive inotropic. (c) Dietary Supplement Dietary supplements are products administered through mouth that contain a dietary ingredient intended to add something to the foods you eat. Examples of dietary supplements are black cohosh for menopausal symptoms, ginkgo biloba for memory loss, and glucosamine/chondroitin for arthritis. They also serves specific functions such as sports nutrition, weight-loss supplements and meal replacements. Supplement ingredients may contain vitamins, minerals, herbs or other botanicals, amino acids, enzymes, organ tissues, gland extracts, or other dietary substances. They are available in different dosage forms, including tablets, capsules, liquids, powders, extracts, and concentrates. A dietary supplements: is a product that is intended to supplement the diet that bears or contains one or more of the following dietary ingredients: a vitamin, a mineral, an herb or other botanical, an amino acid, a dietary substance for use by man to supplement the diet by increasing the total daily intake, or a concentrate, metabolite, constituent, extract, or combinations of these ingredients. is intended for ingestion in pill, capsule, tablet, or liquid form. Thus, nutraceuticals (as per the proposed definition) differ from dietary supplements in the following aspects: Nutraceuticals must not only supplement the diet but should also aid in the prevention and/or treatment of disease and/or disorder. Nutraceuticals are represented for use as a conventional food or as the sole item of meal or diet. [1] 2.(a) Traditional Nutraceuticals Under the category of traditional Nutraceuticals comes food in which no change to the food are made; It is simply natural, whole foods with new information about their potential health qualities. Th ere has been no change to the actual foods, other than the way the consumer perceives them. Many fruits, vegetables, grains, fish, dairy and meat products contain several natural components that deliver benefi ts beyond basic nutrition, such as lycopene in tomatoes, omega-3 fatty acids in salmon or saponins in soy. Even tea and chocolate have been noted in some studies to contain health-benefi ting attributes. Tomatoes and salmon are two types of food that researchers have found to contain benefits beyond basic nutrition – in this case, lycopene and omega-3 fatty acids, respectively. Paste your essay in hb) Nontraditional Nutraceuticals They are the outcome from agricultural breeding or added nutrients and/or ingredients such as orange juice fortified with calcium, cereals with added vitamins or minerals and fl our with added folic acid are nontraditional nutraceutical. Agricultural scientists successfully have come up with the techniques to boost the nutritional content of certain crops. Research currently is being conducted to improve the nutritional quality of many other crops .
3. Based on Diseases :Eg: Cardiovascular diseases :Anti-oxidants, Dietary fibres, Omega-3 poly unsaturated fatty acids, Vitamins, minerals for prevention and treatment of CVD. Diabetes :Ethyl esters of n-3 fatty acids may be beneficial in diabetic patients.
Functional foods
The term “functional food” was first coined in Japan. In 2012 at the FFC’s 10th International Conference in Santa Barbara, CA, we announced a new proposed definition for “functional food”:
“Natural or processed foods that contains known or unknown biologically-active compounds; which, in defined, effective non-toxic amounts, provide a clinically proven and documented health benefit for the prevention, management, or treatment of chronic disease.” [4]
the phrase “in effective non-toxic amounts” to highlight the importance of bioactive compound dosage in the consumption of functional food.
natural or processed. By this, we mean that foods in their pure unchanged or changed forms can be functional. A natural unchanged food has not undergone human interference. A changed food has undergone some chemical modification, whether it be the addition, removal, alteration, or increased bioavailability of a chemical compound within the food.
Biologically-active compounds or secondary metabolites are molecules in food, usually in small amounts, that act synergistically to benefit health.
This fact is paramount to functional foods working therapeutically and not toxically. For example, Vitamin C is a known bioactive compound that should be consumed at 90 mg. in order to maintain normal health. A food containing more than 200-300 mg. of Vitamin C per day may act therapeutically in terms of reducing one’s risk of contracting a cold, thereby acting as a functional food. However, there comes a point at which consuming Vitamin C becomes toxic, which is at approximately 2000 mg. or more daily.
Demonstrating success in clinical studies or tests involving humans are imperative to functional food acceptance among health experts, policy makers, and the public.[4]
Functional foods are endowed with specific physiological benefits that discriminate them from traditional foods. The functionality of functional foods is derived from bioactive ingredients and depends on several technological factors[10].Functional foods are designed foods which provide enriched foods close to their natural state to consumer, rather than manufactured dietary supplements in liquid or capsule form. A process of making enriched food is called Nutrification. Functional foods provide required amount of vitamins, fat, carbohydrate, amino acid etc to body. Established requirement that functional food should possess are- (1) they should be in their naturally-occurring form, (2) they should be an essential part of our daily diet, (3) should regulate a biological process in hopes of preventing or controlling disease.
Classification of Functional Foods[5]
According to Holm (21), Siró et al. (22), Klimas et al. (23), and Saiz (24) it is possible to classify functional foods in different classes depending on origin or modification:
1. Food products fortified with a wealth of ingredients, which do have a positive influence on diseases and the health, e.g., calcium fortified bread, ω-3 fortified breads, or phytosterol fortified spreads.
2. Foods liberated to counteract anti-nutritional compounds produced by processing, e.g., a toxic compound or a food allergen.
3. Food raw materials which are improved by increasing specific components by changed feeding of animals, e.g., eggs or meats high in ω-3 fatty acids, beef high in conjugated linoleic acid or some other nutrients/ food raw material (fruits and vegetables) in which health contributing factor has been increased by some postharvest treatment, e.g., functional grapes with higher antioxidant developed by ultraviolet irradiation.
4. Novel foods with an improved health benefit, produced by genetic manipulation or selection of new varieties not consumed before, e.g., rice with high iron or B-vitamin content, vegetable oils with an improved fatty acid composition, foods without food allergens, canola oil high in carotenoids, wheat with enhanced lutein levels or berries with higher antioxidant content.
Benefits From the consumer’s point of view, functional foods and nutraceuticals may offer many benefits[2]:
May increase the health value of our diet.
May help us live longer.
May help us to avoid particular medical conditions.
May have a psychological benefit from doing something for oneself.
• May be perceived to be more “natural” than traditional medicine and less likely to produce unpleasant side-effects.
May present food for populations with special needs (e.g. nutrient-dense foods for the elderly).