Nutraceuticals, categories

This chapter is devoted to a description of the chemistry, applications, and safety of the wide variety of natural and synthetic colorants available today. But another aspect has entered into consideration. Food safety of colorants has usually been considered to be a negative if we ignore the many benefits of making food more attractive in appearance. The recent meteoric rise of the nutraceutical industries has made it possible to claim health benefits for many categories of food including the colorants. Where appropriate, the health claims will be included in this chapter. 

Specialized nutraceutical-type products often are targeted at persons with unusual metabolic needs. To meet these elevated requirements, products are fortified with specific, free amino acid(s). These products must be examined to ensure that the amino acid in question has been properly supplemented. An example of this category is nutritional products supplemented with glutamine to promote healing after gut trauma. 

The applications of liposomes in foods fulfill similar requirements to their applications in pharmaceuticals, and have been focused in the following categories formulation aid, processing, preservation, stabilizer, nutritional supplement, and nutraceutical carrier. 

The term nutraceutical - a portmanteau of nutrition and pharmaceutical - can refer to any supplement, health product, or formulated food intended to provide prevention against chronic disease or promote general well-being. In this sense, they are often considered similar to supplements. Both of these categories have current and potential future utility for industrial-scale algal production of wild-type and/or engineered strains. 

Nutraceuticals are nonspecific biological therapies used to promote wellness, prevent malignant processes, and control symptoms. It is a broad umbrella term used to describe any product derived from food soiuces that provides extra health benefits in addition to the basic nutritional value foimd in foods. The definition of nutraceuticals and related products often depends on the soiuce. Phytochemicals and antioxidants are two specific types of nutraceuticals. It has been proved that phytochemicals found in foods may help to provide protection from diseases such as cancer, diabetes, heart disease, and hypertension, for example, carotenoids found in carrots. Antioxidants may be helpful in avoiding chronic diseases, by preventing oxidative damage in body [8]. There are multiple different types of products that come imder the category of nutraceuticals ... 

In the quest for accurate and efficient analysis of the diverse area encompassed by functional foods and nutraceuticals, analysts encounter unique challenges. Uncertainty over which compound is responsible for a particular health beneht forces analysts to look for marker compounds, sometimes at extremely low levels, and sometimes as part of a matrix possessing its own individual obstacles. Increasing interest from the media, the scientific and nutritional community, and the end consumer, demand a single, comprehensive resource focused on the analysis of this complex category. 

Awareness of this issue in the West has recently been raised by considerable media attention surrounding the practice of incorporating physiologically active materials into foods and drinks in Japan, leading to the development of a new category of foodstuffs commonly referred to as either functional foods or nutraceuticals. 

It was only within the last few years that saponins were rediscovered and their presence was noted in a new category of functional foods consisting of nutraceuticals with health benefits. In many plants seeds the major components are hydrocolloids such as fenugreek gum, locust bean gum (LBG), and guar gum with considerably high concentrations of saponins. It is therefore a trend in some labs to search for new saponin-rich plants from which the saponins can be extracted [87]. 

Strict standardization protocols will be a prerequisite when considering the relative new world of nutraceuticals and functional foods that, from a legal point of view, fall in a grey area between the food and the drug categories. The term nutraceutical has been defined as a food or parts of food that provide medical or health benefits, including the preventirm and/or... 

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