Throughout the ages, nature has provided humans with sources of the essentials of life, including food, medicines and raw materials for the manufacture of clothing and shelter. Man began to explore the resources of every type on earth for their potentialities to cure ailments and interpreted their effects wisely in terms of knowledge in different branches of science prevailing at that time. Exploitation of abundantly available natural resources is vital for economic development of a country like
Nutraceuticals refer to extracts of foods claimed to have medicinal effect on human health. Nutraceuticals are a large and diverse class of compounds, which occur naturally in plants. Although these compounds are considered non-nutritive, many of them possess antioxidant, antimutagenic, anti-oestrogenic, anti-carcinogenic and anti-inflammatory properties that might potentially be beneficial in preventing diseases and protecting the stability of the genome. The term ‘nutraceutical’ was coined from