POTENTIAL HEALTH BENEFITS OF NUTRACEUTICALS: CURRENT STATUS IN INDIAN MARKET

Shruti Srivastava* and Uma Shanker Maurya

ABSTRACT

For century‟s nutritional medicine, a practice that uses plants, nutrients, foods and herbs to treat health problems, has been dismissed by mainstream western medicine owing to the lack of scientific evidence that it works. However, with recent scientific advancements, we are now able to isolate the chemical composition of nutrients and measure their impact on our cells and hence our lives.[1] Due to the risk of toxicity or adverse effect of drug, consumer are turning massively to food supplements to improve health. Nutraceuticals are isolated product obtained from foods, mostly available in medicinal forms and play a vital role in improving health and protection against chronic diseases. The term „nutraceutical‟, was originally coined in 1989 by Stephen DeFelice, founder and chairman of the Foundation for Innovation in Medicine, is a portmanteau of the words „nutrition‟ (indicating a nourishing food or food component) and „pharmaceutical‟ (with reference to a drug), It identifies a food or part of a food, which can be of vegetal or animal origin, and has a potential pharmaceutical activity.[1] The Indian nutraceutical market is mainly governed by pharmaceuticals and FMCG companies, only a few companies are present which are specialized in nutraceutical products. This has created an untapped opportunity for some labs to grow in market. Increasing health consciousness and improved incomes and standard of living has boosted the growth of the nutraceutical markets in India, making it one of the fastest growing segments.

Keywords: For century?s nutritional products.