Posted on April 18th, 2022

This article, which introduces the series, looks at what defines a nutraceutical.

Over the past few years, an increasing number of dietary supplements have become available in supermarkets and health food shops and they are also available for purchase in pharmacies.

The term “nutraceutical” is used to describe these medicinally or nutritionally functional foods. Nutraceuticals, which have also been called medical foods, designer foods, phytochemicals, functional foods and nutritional supplements, include such everyday products as “bio” yoghurts and fortified breakfast cereals, as well as vitamins, herbal remedies and even genetically modified foods and supplements. Many different terms and definitions are used in different countries, which can result in confusion.

The term “nutraceutical” was coined in 1989 by Stephen De Felice, founder and chairman of the Foundation for Innovation in Medicine, an American organization which encourages medical health research.123 He defined a nutraceutical as a “food, or parts of a food, that provide medical or health benefits, including the prevention and treatment of disease”.

In Canada, a functional food has been defined as being “similar in appearance to conventional foods … consumed as part of a usual diet” whereas a nutraceutical is “a product produced from foods but sold in pills, powders, (potions) and other medicinal forms not generally associated with food”.4

In Britain, the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food has developed a definition of a functional food as “a food that has a component incorporated into it to give it a specific medical or physiological benefit, other than purely nutritional benefit”.5

Hence, both in Canada and in Britain, a functional food is essentially a food, but a nutraceutical is an isolated or concentrated form. In America, “medical foods” and “dietary supplements” are regulatory terms (see below), however “nutraceuticals”, “functional foods”, and other such terms are determined by consultants and marketers, based on consumer trends.6

Many of these new products that are being promoted to treat various disease states, find their origins in the plant kingdom. This is an obvious choice as many plants produce secondary compounds such as alkaloids to protect themselves from infection and these constituents may be useful in the treatment of human infection. There is also a long history of plant use in many cultures which can be used to identify plants with activity in the treatment of disease.

Original article: https://pharmaceutical-journal.com/article/ld/1-what-is-a-nutraceutical