ABSTRACT
Nutraceuticals is a term obtained by the fusion of two terms, nutrition and pharmaceutical. Nutraceuticals are healing foods that have brought about a relationship between appropriate food for health and their therapeutic benefits, ranging from anti-arthritic activity, relief in cold and cough conditions, osteoporosis, blood pressure, arteriosclerosis, and prevention of certain cancers. Of late, nanotechnology has generated remarkable interest in science and medicine. Novel approaches such as nanoparticles, nanoemulsions, transferosomes, nanocapsules, and ethosomes are employed for distribution of bioactives, that is, plant extracts and food materials into the body for medicated purpose. These nanoformulations have several advantages over conventional methods, involving improvement in drug solubility, bioavailability, sustained delivery, distribution, stability, pharmacological activity and safety, coupled with protection from physical and chemical degradation. Accordingly, nanocarries tend to play a pivotal role to enhance the efficacy of these nutraceuticals. Due to the enormous beneficial therapeutic efficacy of phytochemicals and nutraceuticals, these have today emerged as a fast growing domain in nanoresearch.
