Nutraceuticals definition, applied nanoengineering in their production and applications

摘要

Background: Nutraceuticals can be defined as nutritional components that provide therapeutic or physiological benefits beyond the basic nutritional needs and include a wide range of compounds. However, they show very low bioavailability due to limited bio-accessibility, poor absorption and/or chemical transformation within the gastrointestinal tract. This renders their health benefits extremely difficult to be realized by the consumers. The present review shows the nanoengineering process involved in their production, starting from the materials used in the encapsulation, the process of nanoencapsulation, the principal encapsulation techniques used and the function of lipids, carbohydrates and proteins at the nanoencapsulation. Besides, this review gives the recent innovations and applications known using nutraceuticals.