Farooq Anwar
Prince Sattam bin Abdulaziz University,Saudi Arabia
Title: Plants from Food to Medicine: Exploration of Boundary between Food and Medicine
Biography
Biography: Farooq Anwar
Abstract
Plants have been valued as a source of food, fuel and shelter since the beginning of human life. In addition to furnishing most of the nutritional requirement of the mankind and livestock, the plant kingdom also offers huge reserves of medicinal flora with remarkable applications as folk remedies to treat and/ or cure several diseases in many parts of the world. According to World Health Organization (WHO), 70-80% of the population, especially in Asia and Africa still rely upon traditional/herbal medicine for their primary health care needs. In fact, by the last few decades, there is a revival of interest in the use of plants as a source of food and medicine. An extensive research is being focused to investigating the bioactives composition of plant foods and to elucidating the mechanisms how such bioactives impart physiological benefits. This has led to exploration of boundary between food and medicine. In this direction, many plants and herbal species having multiple nutritional and physiological benefits continued to play a vital role in the advancements of optimal nutrition and the beginning of the “science of functional foods and nutraceuticals”. The present lecture is mainly framed to discuss and highlight the potential of selected plant foods as a natural medicine. Different types of functional food components and medicinally important bioactives alongwith their plant sources and biological/pharmaceutical activities have been discussed. Moreover, an overview of the current global market of functional foods and nutraceuticals/natural health supplements is presented together with the depiction of the recent trends, challenges and future prospects of this fast growing industry.