Kshitija Abhang
Class : Final Year B.pharm
Nutraceuticals are compounds that have nutritional, pharmacological, and therapeutic benefits, as well as the potential to help prevent diseases. Being raised in an Indian environment, I would describe the delicious spices in the kitchen as a nutraceutical, because the formulation is one traditional term that is the essence of any product that is called So, on further reading through the various textbooks and research papers, I discovered that, while nutraceuticals, dietary supplements, and functional foods all overlap quite a bit, there is a thin line between them.
Functional food, by definition, is any food that has been added or enhanced to improve total nutrition. Functional foods had their origins in the mid-twentieth century when biochemists responded to dietary shortages by extracting vitamins and minerals to increase items like folate-enriched bread, iodized salt, and calcium-fortified orange juice; this period is known as Functional Foods 1.0. Over the last two decades, the functional foods business, now known as Functional Foods 2.0, has expanded dramatically to include additions such as soy protein, collagen, and spirulina in snacks, bars, drinks, mixes, pasta, cereals, powders, to mention a few.
Even though they claim to serve the same objective, functional foods resemble food, whereas dietary supplements resemble drugs and can cause drug-like reactions in humans.
A dietary supplement is defined as “a product (other than tobacco) that is intended to supplement the diet and contains one or more of the following dietary ingredients—a vitamin, a mineral, a herb or other botanical, an amino acid”. A dietary substance to supplement the diet by increasing the total daily intake, or a concentrate, metabolite, constituent, extract, or combinations of these ingredients; is ingested in pill, capsule, tablet, or liquid form and is not represented for use as a conventional food or as the sole item of a meal or diet; and is labeled as a dietary supplement.
Nutraceuticals are any entire food – not an isolated nutrient or vitamin – that has been concentrated and repackaged in a non-food shape, such as a capsule, under the banner of “dietary supplements.” Garlic capsules (such as Puritan’s Pride Odorless Garlic), spinach (such as Swanson Premium Full Spectrum Spinach Leaf), or beets (such as Nature’s Way Beet Root) are all suitable examples. Each of these pure, complete botanicals has demonstrated potential in enhancing health and reducing disease when consumed.
The Indian nutraceuticals market accounts for almost 2% of worldwide nutraceutical sales. It is predicted to grow quickly, capturing 3% of the global market by 2022. More than 90% of the worldwide nutraceuticals market is dominated by developed countries such as the United States, Europe, and Japan.
Nutraceuticals offer both food and pharmaceutical companies an exciting opportunity: A merger of the nutraceuticals portfolios of a big food company and a big pharmaceuticals company might make sense by complementing each other’s strengths (and weaknesses), but there hasn’t been a significant one yet. Food companies have a better understanding of nutrition and food formulation than pharmaceuticals, plus decades of consumer research and relationships with mass-market distributors. Pharmaceutical businesses have robust research departments, stakeholder links, and regulatory systems that enable them to develop novel substances, as well as stronger scientific ties.
Some Indian companies that are engaged in Nutraceuticals are:
1) Syngene (Contract Manufacturing for Probiotics)
2) Fairchem – Tocopherol Natural Vitamin-E
3) Fermenta Biotech – Vitamin D3
4) Advanced Enzymes – Human & Animal Nutrition
5) Laurus Labs – Synthesis/ Ingredient(Dietary Supplements) Et