| Definition of nutraceutical | Sources |
| “A nutraceutical is any substance considered a food or part of a food which provides medical or health benefits including the prevention or treatment of disease and include isolated nutrients, dietary supplements, diets and dietary plans, genetically engineered foods, herbal products and processed foods such as cereals soups and beverages.” | DeFelice cited [4] |
| “Chemicals found as a natural component of foods or other ingestible forms that have been determined to be beneficial to the human body in preventing or treating one or more diseases or improving physiological performance. Essential nutrients can be considered nutraceuticals if they provide benefit beyond their essential role in normal growth or maintenance of the human body” è Functional Food: “A food, either natural or formulated, which will enhance physiological performance or prevent or treat diseases and disorders.” | [5] |
| “[…] functional food provides the body with the required amount of vitamins, fats, proteins, carbohydrates, etcnedded for its healthy survival. When functional food aids in the prevention and/or treatment of disease(s) and/or disorder(s) other than anemia, it is called a nutraceutical.” | [10] |
| A “food or natural substance that contains or is supplemented with ingredients purported to have health benefits.” | [11] |
| “A food or naturally occurring food supplement thought to prevent disease or have other beneficial effects on human health. Also called functional Food.” | [12] |
| “[…] According to this conventional view, foodstuffs primarily provide nutrition in the form of substances which the human body needs for normal development and maintenance of bodily functions. Medicines, on the other hand, are always seen as therapeutic agents in the context of disease and health. The more knowledge is obtained about the health-promoting effect of foods, the more blurred this seemingly strict separating line becomes between these two product groups. This is reflected in the word nutraceutical combining both the idea of nutrition and the concept of the pharmaceutical. And it is now a well established term.” | [13] |
| “A nutraceutical is a product isolated or purified from foods that is generally sold in medicinal forms not usually associated with food. A nutraceutical is demonstrated to have a physiological benefit or provide protection against chronic disease.” è “A functional food is similar in appearance to, or may be, a conventional food, is consumed as part of a usual diet, and is demonstrated to have physiological benefits and/or reduce the risk of chronic disease beyond basic nutritional functions.” | [14] |