Abstract
Nutraceuticals are the combination of Nutrition and Pharmaceuticals and refer to the ‘food’ possessing pharmaceutical properties. They are classified into traditional (herbals, phytochemicals, probiotic, prebiotic) and non-traditional (fortified and recombinant) categories; nutraceuticals are mainly intended for preventing and treating diseases. Nutraceuticals possess several therapeutic activities, which can be exploited to treat disorders like cardiovascular, diabetes, cancer, inflammations, Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease. Nutraceuticals are mainly obtained from natural sources, hence they are comparatively safer and cheaper alternatives than pharmaceuticals, which leads to tremendous growth and flourishing markets for these kind of products. The main objective of this review is to determine the advancement made in the field of nutraceuticals and their potential as pharmaceutical alternatives. This article focuses on the present and past market scenario of nutraceuticals, their therapeutic effects and advantages over pharmaceuticals products. Secondly, with the advancement of novel drug delivery systems, the drawbacks of nutraceuticals have been resolved, and efficacy has been improved, which resulted in gaining the interests of scientists and researchers in this field for further improvement. Thus, we can expect the lucrative market of nutraceuticals in the upcoming days. It is clear that nutraceuticals have great potential to replace pharmaceuticals and serve the wellbeing of mankind.
Keywords: Nutraceuticals, probiotic and prebiotic, fortified, recombinant, novel drug delivery system, nanoparticles.
Graphical Abstract
97