About this Research Topic
Given the outstanding impact of 'Foods, Dietary Supplements, and Herbal Products Treating the Diseases of the 21st Century: Moving from Traditional to Scientific Research’, Frontiers in Nutrition is happy to launch Volume II of this successful Research Topic.
Nutraceuticals are foods or food constituents that provide medical or health benefits, including the prevention and/or treatment of a disease. Nutraceuticals have an advantage over conventional medicine as they can minimize side effects and take the place of a natural dietary supplement, among other benefits. Nutraceuticals are typically grouped based on their natural source, chemical grouping, or classified into categories like nutrients, herbals, dietary supplements and dietary fiber. In the nutraceutical industry, the most rapid growth has been seen in natural/herbal products and dietary supplements. The latter are regulated by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to ensure their safety. Herbal nutraceuticals are used as powerful tools in maintaining health and acting against nutritionally-induced acute and chronic diseases, thereby promoting optimal health, longevity, and quality of life.
The incorporation of foods, dietary supplements, and herbal products into 21st-century medical treatment paradigms can help assure their convenience, accessibility, and acceptability. Plants from vastly separated regions of the world that are components of traditional medicines, used to treat specific conditions, are characteristically clustered. This feature has significant cross-culture patterns that can inform drug development and supports the value of linking robust ethnobotanical and ethnomedical studies with 21st-century technologies and systems analyses to accelerate the identification of functionally relevant bioactivities. However, the amount of scientific evidence on foods, dietary supplements, and herbal products varies widely, necessitating thorough scientific evidence before they are used.
This Research Topic welcomes both research and review papers on the following topics:
• food diversity and its effect on consumption and health;
• nutraceutical research: from traditional to the scientific revolution;
• dietary supplements of natural origin in the treatment of disease conditions;
• processing and functionality of natural products;
• traditional natural products and their role in the treatment of diseases;
• when food becomes medicine in the treatment of disease conditions;
• medicinal plants: diversity and functionality;
• digital marketing of traditional natural products: meeting the supply and demand.
Nutraceuticals are foods or food constituents that provide medical or health benefits, including the prevention and/or treatment of a disease. Nutraceuticals have an advantage over conventional medicine as they can minimize side effects and take the place of a natural dietary supplement, among other benefits. Nutraceuticals are typically grouped based on their natural source, chemical grouping, or classified into categories like nutrients, herbals, dietary supplements and dietary fiber. In the nutraceutical industry, the most rapid growth has been seen in natural/herbal products and dietary supplements. The latter are regulated by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to ensure their safety. Herbal nutraceuticals are used as powerful tools in maintaining health and acting against nutritionally-induced acute and chronic diseases, thereby promoting optimal health, longevity, and quality of life.
The incorporation of foods, dietary supplements, and herbal products into 21st-century medical treatment paradigms can help assure their convenience, accessibility, and acceptability. Plants from vastly separated regions of the world that are components of traditional medicines, used to treat specific conditions, are characteristically clustered. This feature has significant cross-culture patterns that can inform drug development and supports the value of linking robust ethnobotanical and ethnomedical studies with 21st-century technologies and systems analyses to accelerate the identification of functionally relevant bioactivities. However, the amount of scientific evidence on foods, dietary supplements, and herbal products varies widely, necessitating thorough scientific evidence before they are used.
This Research Topic welcomes both research and review papers on the following topics:
• food diversity and its effect on consumption and health;
• nutraceutical research: from traditional to the scientific revolution;
• dietary supplements of natural origin in the treatment of disease conditions;
• processing and functionality of natural products;
• traditional natural products and their role in the treatment of diseases;
• when food becomes medicine in the treatment of disease conditions;
• medicinal plants: diversity and functionality;
• digital marketing of traditional natural products: meeting the supply and demand.
Keywords: Traditional Medicine, Natural Products, Herbal Nutraceutical, Health Benefits, Disease Conditions, Society Affiliation RT
Important Note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.
