While on one side mounting evidence is demonstrating the benefits of health foods in disease prevention and health promotion, several safety concerns have been recently raised particularly with regard to the seemingly indiscriminate addition of botanicals to food. A plethora of cereals including rice, maize, wheat, jowar, and drinks, soups, teas, noodles and flours are…
Research results linking diet to disease reinforced by epidemiological studies establishing the same in several population studies of disease-free groups.
Many herbs have health benefits and millions of people have already resorted to the use of herbal medicines with the conviction that these being natural are effective and safer than standard medicines. Herbal additives have begun to appear in conventional foods ranging from teas, juices, snack chips, energy bars, etc. The size of this tremendous…
Health foods or functional foods have no universally accepted definition. Functional foods are those whole, fortified, enriched or enhanced foods that provide health benefits beyond provision of essential nutrients such as vitamins and minerals. They may do more than supply the macronutrients and micronutrients the body needs for normal biochemical reactions. Functional foods have bioactive components that can…
Cross-cultural comparisons and epidemiological studies form the basis for understanding the role of dietary factors in disease etiology. Research activities of nutritionists and food scientists have historically run parallel to those of phytochemists, pharmacognocists and natural product chemists. While vitamins, minerals, aminoacids, carbohydrates and lipids are compounds of primary interest to food chemists, natural product…
An ancient Siddha medicine dictum ‘Unave marundhu, marundhe unavu’ which means food as medicine, medicine as food, well reinforces the importance of diet for disease-free living. This ancient wisdom of our country seems to be lost in the folds of history with the adoption of western medical system as the more superior health care provider for…
The first records of essential oils come from ancient India, Persia and Egypt. Both Greece and Rome conducted extensive trade in odoriferous oils with countries of the Orient (referring to erstwhile countries of Asia). The much-prized spices of India, China and the Indies served as the impetus for the advent of European traders to India.…
Applications of aromatic plants and volatile oils extracted from them include Furthermore, the requirements of essential oils for use in aromatherapy are increasing, creating a demand for organically produced exotic oils.
Most volatile oil-bearing plants are found in the tropical world and cannot be easily grown in other geoclimatic regions. Whereas the commercially important volatile oil-bearing plants of the temperate and subtropical regions can easily be grown in the tropics. Essential oil-bearing plants are spread over a wide range of families of both Angiosperms and Gymnosperms.…
Essential oils are highly volatile substances isolated by a physical process from an aromatic plant of a single botanical species. Such oils were called ‘essential’ because they were thought to represent the very essence of the odour and flavour of the plant. Aromatic plants include herbs, shrubs and trees of all sizes, and may be…