International Journal of Engineering Research in Electronics and Communication Engineering

Plant bioactive phytochemicals: their role in disease prevention

Author : Shoghil R ¹ Nithya G ² Payal B ³ Priya M ⁴ Tirth P ⁵

Date of Publication :20th December 2017

Abstract: â€œLeave your drugs in the chemist's pot if you can heal the patient with foodâ€ â€“ Hippocrates (460-377B.C), the father of medicine recommended, â€œLet thy food be thy medicine and thy medicine be thy foodâ€. Appropriately planned vegetarian diets are healthful, nutritionally adequate and provide health benefits in the prevention and treatment of certain diseases. Such an idea reflected the importance of diet for their therapeutic and preventive bioactive components due to their elevated margin of safety and desired range of efficacy. The above observation made centuries ago has now gained scientific verifications with epidemiological studies showing that the incidence of many chronic and degenerative diseases are least in countries like India and China where vegetables, fruits and spices form an essential part of human diet. With regard to the extensive consumption of nutraceuticals in the diet, the biological activity of these compounds is an important area of scientific investigation. Given the potential therapeutic tendencies of these compounds, one would expect to observe their favourable effects in human population..

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