Nutraceuticals
IMPORTANCE OF NUTRACEUTICALS
INTRODUCTION:
“Nutraceuticals” can be defined as a food entity or food products which possess pharmaceutical as well as therapeutical importance. In the most common term, it can be understood as the use of various food or food products in curing any ailment or unhealthy human condition. Nutraceuticals are becoming important now-a-days and are in high demand since many of them possess properties of curing many types of diseases and ailments. There is a long list of many such nutraceuticals which needs introduction and discussion. Some of them have age old medicinal values whereas some of them are recently being recognised and explored. The term “nutraceutical” was coined by founder and chairman, Dr. Stephen L. DeFelice of the Foundation of Innovation Medicine (FIM), Crawford, New Jersey and this term indicates food extracts like various forms of vitamins, herbs, food components like curcumin, lycopene, beta-carotene and resveratrol etc.
We all know vitamins are a household word and famous for their nutritional and antioxidative properties. Since 1747, the importance of vitamins had come into existence. During that time vitamin C was found to cure disease like scurvy. In much later times vitamin C has been reported to be effective as a protectant against a variety of toxic chemical agents including heavy metals (Holloway and Peterson, 1984). The therapeutic importance of vitamin C is immense. Vitamin C stimulate the production of enzymes super oxide dismutase, catalase and heat shock proteins in lymphocytes to subjects exposed to physiological oxidative stress during exercise (Khassaf et.al., 2003).Presently many nutraceuticals are being used in chemotherapy. Some nutraceuticals are provided with chemotherapeutic drugs to assist in the process of therapy and help in killing cancer cells more efficiently. Again some nutraceuticals are concurrently applied with many drugs to minimize and reduce the side-effects of various anticancer
INTRODUCTION:
“Nutraceuticals” can be defined as a food entity or food products which possess pharmaceutical as well as therapeutical importance. In the most common term, it can be understood as the use of various food or food products in curing any ailment or unhealthy human condition. Nutraceuticals are becoming important now-a-days and are in high demand since many of them possess properties of curing many types of diseases and ailments. There is a long list of many such nutraceuticals which needs introduction and discussion. Some of them have age old medicinal values whereas some of them are recently being recognised and explored. The term “nutraceutical” was coined by founder and chairman, Dr. Stephen L. DeFelice of the Foundation of Innovation Medicine (FIM), Crawford, New Jersey and this term indicates food extracts like various forms of vitamins, herbs, food components like curcumin, lycopene, beta-carotene and resveratrol etc.
We all know vitamins are a household word and famous for their nutritional and antioxidative properties. Since 1747, the importance of vitamins had come into existence. During that time vitamin C was found to cure disease like scurvy. In much later times vitamin C has been reported to be effective as a protectant against a variety of toxic chemical agents including heavy metals (Holloway and Peterson, 1984). The therapeutic importance of vitamin C is immense. Vitamin C stimulate the production of enzymes super oxide dismutase, catalase and heat shock proteins in lymphocytes to subjects exposed to physiological oxidative stress during exercise (Khassaf et.al., 2003).Presently many nutraceuticals are being used in chemotherapy. Some nutraceuticals are provided with chemotherapeutic drugs to assist in the process of therapy and help in killing cancer cells more efficiently. Again some nutraceuticals are concurrently applied with many drugs to minimize and reduce the side-effects of various anticancer
References: 1. Holloway, D.F and Peterson, F.J. (1984). Ascorbic acid in drug metabolism. In Drugs and Nutrients., 21: 225-295. 2. Donnelly, E.T., McClure, N. and Lewis, S.E.M. (1999). The effect of ascorbate and alpha -tocopherol supplementation in vitro on DNA integrity and hydrogen peroxide-induced DNA damage in human spermatozoa. Mutagenesis., 14 (5): 505-512. 3. Mazumdar, M., S, Giri., S, Singh., A, Kausar., Giri, A. and Sharma, G.D. (2011). Antioxidative potential of vitamin c against chemotherapeutic agent Mitomycin C induced genotoxicity in somatic and germ cells in mouse test model. Assam University Journal of science and technology., 7(1): 10-17. 4. Mazumdar, M., Giri, S. and Roy, S. (2012). Role of vitamin E-acetate on cisplatin induced genotoxicity: An in vivo analysis. Central European Journal of Biology., 7(2): 334-342. 5. Pulla Reddy, A. and Lokesh, B.R. (1994). Effect of dietary turmeric (Curcuma longa) on iron-induced lipid peroxidation in the rat liver. Food Chem. Toxicol., 32: 279-283. 6. Li, A.P. and Heflich, R.H. (1991). Genetical Toxicology by CRC Press. 7. Mazumdar, M., Giri, S. and Giri, A. (2011). Role of quercetin on mitomycin C induced genotoxicity: Analysis of micronucleus and chromosome aberrations in vivo. Genetic Toxicology and Environmental Mutagenesis. 21(2):147–152. 8. Aggarwal BB, Bhardwaj A, Aggarwal RS, Seeram NP, Shishodia S, Takada Y.(2004). Role of resveratrol in prevention and therapy of cancer: preclinical and clinical studies. Anticancer Res. 24(5A):2783-840.