ABSTRACT
Over the last decade or so there has been a sea change in the thought process of common man. More and more people have started linking food intimately to optimal health. This recent popularity among the masses of having healthy food as a part of their routine diet has driven the food industry to invest heavily and aggressively into the research dealing with fortification of food products (with phytochemicals) leading to the growth of a specialized category of food products called “functional foods”. On the other hand, the pharmaceutical sector is vigorously working on identification of potential novel actives from natural product based traditional medicine systems (Ayurveda and Traditional Chinese Medicine), which could be used for treating complicated health conditions (cancer, diabetes, HIV/AIDS etc.). This combined interest from both food and pharmaceutical sectors has led to increased exploratory research on phytochemicals. Phytochemicals are naturally occurring, biologically active chemical compounds in plants.
