Bio-fortification of underutilized Himalayan pear and plum- A next hotspot for nutritional strategies of the 'œneglected' micronutrients

Functional foods/nutraceuticals have received considerable interest in recent times, because of their presumed safety and potential nutritional and pharmaceutical value. Nutraceuticals are the substances which are not traditionally recognized nutrients, but which have positive physiological effects on the human health and claimed to possess multiple therapeutic benefits. The medicinal plants represent one of the important fields of traditional medicine all over the world and hence established constituents of nutraceuticals. The use of food for promoting health is as old as the practice of phyto-medicine for treating or preventing various types of illness. Presently, health awareness around the globe is increasing, leading to the demand for functional food products with special characteristics and health benefits. These functional foods can play an important role in preventing the occurrence of certain chronic diseases besides providing a means to reduce increasing burden on the health care system with a continuous preventive mechanism. Further, fruits and herbs are considered as protective foods, as they contain numerous phytochemicals and natural bioactive compounds such as polyphenols, flavonoids, anthocyanins and carotenoids, which provide protection against many diseases. Therefore, the fruits and herbs rich in different bioactive compounds can be investigated for the development of functional food products and the present review could eventually be helpful in drawing the attention of researchers and scientists to work on it. Manjeet Singh | Pankaj Kumar Chauhan | Pankaj Kumar"Bio-fortification of underutilized Himalayan pear and plum- A next hotspot for nutritional strategies of the 'œneglected' micronutrients" Published in International Journal of Trend in Scientific Research and Development (ijtsrd), ISSN: 2456-6470, Volume-2 | Issue-1 , December 2017, URL: http://www.ijtsrd.com/papers/ijtsrd7050.pdf http://www.ijtsrd.com/engineering/food-engineering/7050/bio-fortification-of-underutilized-himalayan-pear-and-plum--a-next-hotspot-for-nutritional-strategies-of-the-'œneglected'-micronutrients/manjeet-singh