Role of nutraceuticals in health care: A review

Abstract

The term “nutraceuticals†can be explained as the food items as a whole or a part which possesses some nutritional value along with the medicinal properties. This special feature, besides providing good health, leads to treatment and prevention of certain diseases. With the advancements in the qualitative and quantitative determining parameters, the requisition of these products has been found to be amplified. Due to this, the nutraceutical market has become a million dollar industry at a global level. The era of emergence of nutrients as medicines in the pharmaceutical world is of great importance and draws attention of scientists and researchers toward the appreciable benefits. The history and discovery has explored many facts about the remarkably profound therapeutic activities of such agents. As a result, interdisciplinary approaches are now been applied to design and develop various dosage forms to deliver these herbal products relative to their applications. The extensive researches have revealed the involvement of these agents in the treatment of many disorders such as cancer, arthritis, metabolic abnormalities, diabetes, asthma, and many others. The presented review is an attempt to classify all types of nutraceuticals with examples followed by their applications in the treatment of various disorders. Furthermore, the implementation of the designing and development of dosage forms for offering better delivery carrier of the nutraceuticals, the importance and challenges have also been enumerated.