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Nutraceuticals and Antioxidants in Prevention of Diseases

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Natural Products

Abstract

Drugs and food from natural origin play an important role in public health-care system throughout the world. The word nutraceutical is a broad term describing foods, food ingredients, and dietary supplements that provide specific health or medical benefits, in addition to the basic nutritional value found in the food. A significant source for nutraceutical ingredients is bioactive phytochemicals like alkaloids, various terpenoids, and polyphenols (anthocyanins, flavones, flavanols, isoflavones, stilbenes, ellagic acid, etc.). A variety of these phytochemical compounds form an integral part of the nutraceutical market being antioxidants, and they help in the prevention of many degenerative and chronic diseases. In this review, classification of nutraceuticals, phytochemical classes as nutraceutical ingredients, antioxidants as nutraceuticals, and advantages and drawbacks along with nutraceutical market development are discussed.

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Abbreviations

CAGR:

Compound annual growth rate

FMCG:

Fast-moving consumer goods

ROS:

Reactive oxygen species

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by financial assistance from UGC-DRS under special assistance program for medicinal plant research to K.G.R. N. J. thanks UGC for financial assistance in the form of fellowship.

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Correspondence to Kishan G. Ramawat .

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Jain, N., Ramawat, K.G. (2013). Nutraceuticals and Antioxidants in Prevention of Diseases. In: Ramawat, K., Mérillon, JM. (eds) Natural Products. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-22144-6_70

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