Pharmaceuticals

Nutraceuticals are the food or a part of it that have some health beneficial effects with or without nutritional values. For past several decades, these nutraceuticals have been gaining importance as the alternative or supplemental medications along with pharmaceuticals for prevention or treatment of wide-range of diseases. These nutraceuticals have been an attractive option over the conventional therapies due to their less or no side effects and nutritional values. Although the effectiveness of nutraceuticals as complementary medications has proven in several Pre-/clinical trials, a significant scientific debate is going on their medical benefits. So, there is an emerging need to demonstrate the health benefits (in alone or combination) of nutraceuticals and provide their detailed molecular mode of action. In this mini review, I have attempted to summarize the beneficial effects and uses of several nutraceuticals (dietary supplements, phytochemicals, nutrients, and herbals) against some of the chronic ailments including cancer, diabetes, obesity, cardiovascular, and neurological diseases.

An ideal nutraceutical for the management of obesity should be able to increase energy expenditure and/or decrease caloric intake for body weight reduction. Several marketed nutraceuticals such as Amla (Emblica officinalis), Curcumin, Fenugreek (Trigonella foenum-graecum), and vitamins (Chromium, Magnesium, and vitamin E) were proven to be effective against obesity and its associated metabolic complications.⁸ The other nutraceuticals including capsaicin conjugated linoleic acid, Murraya koenigii, Momordica charantia, Lagenaria siceraria, Vigna mungo, and Psyllium fiber possess potential anti-obese properties along with hypoglycemic and hypolipidemic effects.^8,9 Moreover, the herbal stimulants namely caffeine, chitosan, ephedrine, green tea (Camellia sinensis), ma huang-guarana can be useful in facilitating the body weight loss