Vol. 11, Issue 10 (2022)

The concept of nutraceutical evidence based medicines was started from a survey held in United Kingdom, Germany and France which concluded that diet is rated more highly by consumers than exercise or hereditary factors for achieving good health. Nutraceutical, a portmanteau of the words “nutrition” and “pharmaceutical”, is a food or food product that reportedly provides health and medical benefits, including the prevention and treatment of disease. Nutraceutical is a term that does not easily fall into the legal category of food and drug and often inhabits a grey area between the two. Nutraceuticals may range from isolated nutrients herbal products, dietary supplements and diets to genetically engineered “designs” foods and processed products such as cereals, soups and beverages and hence also referred to as functional foods. A nutraceutical is demonstrated to have a physiological benefit or provide protection against chronic disease. Apart from disease prevention, they play an important role in disease management and therapy. Also, the growing consumer awareness regarding health care has led to the tantalizing opportunity for a “nutraceutical” break though in the pharmaceutical battleground as an alternative to modern medicine. This revolution will lead us into a new era of medicine and health, in which the food industry will become research oriented, one similar to the pharmaceutical industry. This review article focuses on the definition, history, development, classification, challenges and opportunities.