Abstract
Nutraceuticals have evolved from ancient medicinal practices to modern dietary supplements, with the term being coined by Stephen DeFelice in 1989. This review explores the history, definitions, composition, and impact of nutraceuticals on health and disease prevention. Nutraceuticals are derived from food sources and include superfoods, dietary supplements, phytochemicals, fortified foods, and genetically modified products. These include probiotics, prebiotics, and enzymatic regulators, among other non-nutrients. The term “nutraceutical” has no legal definition and is often used interchangeably with “bioactive,” “functional foods,” or “dietary supplements.” Nutraceuticals offer health benefits beyond basic nutrition, including immunity enhancement, well-being management, disease prevention, and treatment. They are regarded a supplement to pharmaceutical treatments and can help delay, improve, or prevent disease progression. Nutraceuticals consist of vitamins, minerals, proteins, fibers, fats, and amino acids, in addition to herbs. Nutraceuticals encompass herbs, vitamins, proteins, minerals, fats, fibers, and amino acids. The nutraceuticals concept has been extensively discussed and evaluated since 1995, underscoring their potential to promote human health and prevent disease by providing physiological advantages.
Introduction
The idea of utilizing food as medicine has existed for several centuries; ancient cultures such as the Greeks, Romans, and Egyptians recorded the therapeutic and religious applications of plants. Hippocrates’ quote, Medicine should aim to restore and maintain health in a way that mirrors the natural, nourishing effects of food,” is a timeless lesson. Historically, several plants have been used for their medicinal properties. For instance, China has used ginseng for more than 2,000 years, and the Egyptians prized spices like cinnamon, which they regarded as being even more valuable than gold [1].
Since the late 1980s, foods with therapeutic or nutritional benefits have been referred to as “nutraceuticals” [2]. “In 1984, DeFelice proposed the term “nutraceutical” to refer to any substance that can be consumed as food or a component of food that offers health or medical benefits, such as disease prevention and treatment” [3-4].
Superfoods, nutrient-rich foods like fortified cereals, phytochemicals, dietary supplements like vitamins derived from natural sources, and foods derived from genetically modified organisms for uses other than nutrition are all considered nutraceutical [2]. Director of the Foundation for Innovation in Medicine, Stephen DeFelice, first used the term “nutraceutical” in 1989. Foods or food ingredients that have health or medicinal properties, including the ability to prevent or treat disease, are referred to as nutraceuticals [5]. Stephen DeFelice created the term “nutraceuticals” which combines the concepts of “nutrition” and “pharmaceuticals,” referring to products that provide both nutritional and therapeutic benefits, which are combined to create substances that have therapeutic and health benefits for people [6].
Nutraceuticals are made up of nutrients or extracts that are typically obtained from whole food sources and used either preventatively or therapeutically [7]. Nutraceuticals are molecules derived from food that have health or medicinal properties beyond their basic nutritional roles such as the ability to prevent and treat diseases and their symptoms. In 1989, the Foundation for Innovation in Medicine (New York, NY, USA) coined the term “nutraceutical” to refer to “any food substance or part of a food that provides specific medical or health benefits beyond their basic nutritional value” [8]. These cover a wide range of product categories, including but not limited to protein powders, vitamin and mineral mixes, food-derived active substances or related by-products, herbal and botanical products, and components of dietary supplements [7]. In the early 1990s, the term “substances” brings health benefits beyond ordinary nutrition (nutraceuticals) into the mainstream [9]. Nutrition-wise, nutraceuticals are dietary supplements that include both non-nutrients, such as prebiotics, probiotics, phytochemicals, and enzymatic regulators and nutrients (such as carbohydrates, proteins, and lipids) [10].
The term “nutraceutical” is self-defined and lacks a legal definition. Additionally, there are several contexts in which the phrase is used with varying degrees of complexity; it is often used synonymously or in conjunction with terms like “bioactive”, “functional foods”, or “dietary supplements” (the sole legally recognized term) [9]. As a result, there is a fine line regarding the creation of goods and claims about substances that affect health [9].
Nutraceuticals are foods or portions of foods with health or medical benefits such as illness prevention and therapy [11]. They have an impact on immunity, well-being management, and health enhancement, as well as the management and avoidance of specific illnesses. Nutraceuticals might therefore be seen as one of the areas lacking in a person’s overall health and well-being [12].
Food-based supplements that contain a bioactive ingredient in a higher concentration than or equal to that found in a balanced diet and that work as a supplement to support pharmaceutical treatments or to delay, improve, or even prevent disease” are known as nutraceuticals [13]. Nutraceuticals are foods or dietary components that have health or medical benefits, such as helping to prevent or treat disease [14]. Nutraceuticals are organic compounds obtained from food that assist human health and illness prevention by offering physiological advantages [15]. Nutraceuticals as a concept and its possibilities have been the subject of much discussion and analysis since 1995. It can recognize food, or parts of food, that may come from plants or animals and may be medicinal. Food is the primary source of macro- and micro-nutrients for the body’s metabolism [16].
Kalra (2003) proposed that the capacity of a nutraceutical to “assist in the prevention and/or treatment of disease or disorder” sets it apart from a functional food. To put it another way, according to Santini, Tenore, and Novellino (2017), “A nutraceutical is defined as a food or a component of food that offers health benefits beyond its basic nutritional value.” The term “nutraceutical” is often used to describe the use and effectiveness of various herbal products. Items such as herbs, vitamins, proteins, minerals, fats, fiber, and amino acids are classified as “nutritional elements” under this category [8]. Nutraceuticals are defined as dietary supplements that contain a putative bioactive ingredient from food in a concentrated form within a non-food matrix, they are multi-targeted combinations used to improve health at dosages greater than what would be received from a typical diet. The most current definition is still the most relevant even though several organizations have modified it over time [17]. Nutraceuticals are organic bioactive compounds with significant physiological and biological effects. A popular alternative to traditional pharmaceuticals due to their perceived safety and efficacy, nutraceuticals are compounds produced from food that have health advantages, including the prevention and treatment of disease [18]. Food elements with therapeutic or preventive health effects include antioxidants, polyunsaturated fatty acids, herbal items, probiotics, and prebiotics [23]. Nutraceuticals mix nutrients from plants, animals, and microbes with pharmaceuticals to provide both medicinal and nutritional benefits [19]. “Nutraceuticals, in contrast to pharmaceuticals, are substances that usually have no patent protection. Although pharmaceutical compounds are the only ones with official government approval, pharmaceutical and nutraceutical substances may be utilized to treat or prevent diseases [1]. The terms “pharmaceutics” and “nutrition” combine to form the word “nutraceutical.” This statement includes goods that are kept separate from herbal products, dietary supplements (nutrients), specific diets, and processed foods like cereals, soups, and drinks that are not only nourishing, but also possess medicinal properties (Kalra, 2003). Nutraceuticals are substances, unlike pharmaceuticals, which typically enjoy patent protection. Pharmaceutical compounds are the only ones with official government approval to be used in illness prevention or treatment; nutraceutical chemicals are not [1].
Nutraceuticals, including isolated nutrients, dietary supplements, and genetically engineered foods, have potential health-promoting and disease-preventing benefits. However, their biological efficacy is compromised by low bioavailability due to factors such as insufficient gastric residence time, poor permeability, susceptibility to food processing conditions, and instability in the gastrointestinal tract [20].
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P.P. Chavan, L.S. Nemade, The Evolution of Nutraceuticals: From Ancient Medicine to Modern Dietary Supplements. J. Pharm. Sci. Comput. Chem. 2025, 1 [2], 135-153.
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