NUTRACEUTICALS: TODAY’S NEED FOR HEALTH CARE

Hitesh Kumar* and Ashok Kumar Rajpoot

ABSTRACT

A nutraceutical is a food or a part of a food substance that provides medical or health benefits, including the prevention and treatment of diseases. Now a days people are deeply concerned about their health due to life style diseases like diabetes, hypertension, obesity etc. are very common. Besides that hectic working schedule, stressed conditions at work place, competitive environment among students, unhealthy food habits, disturbed biological clock of sleeping due to night shift in many Industries and lack of physical exercise leading society in a diseased state in very early age. Medicines are universally known for their severe side effects and nobody can ignore this. So in current environment nutraceutical can play a key role in the maintenance of health and in treatment of diseases without any side effects. In present scenario, by looking forward in Indian market, pharmaceutical companies have introduced a lot of health supplement and nutraceuticals. Due to lack of strict nutraceutical regulations, it is a challenge for the consumers to identify the suitable nutraceutical for their health and to get assurance of their safe use. Therefore, in this review, we have focused on detailed introduction of nutraceuticals, their sources and effects along with their rational use.

Keywords: Nutraceuticals, Phytonutraceuticals, Functional food, Rational.