Chapter 16 Toxicity and safety of nutraceuticals

Currently, consumers are more conscious about the importance of having a good diet and lifestyle; so the demand for products with potential health benefits has increased. Nutraceuticals can be classified according to different criteria. Based on their chemical structure, they can be divided into phenolic compounds, fatty acids and structural lipids, carbohydrates and amino-acids derivatives, minerals, and terpenoids derivatives. All these compounds are linked to different health benefits, such as antioxidant, anticancer and anti-inflammatory activity, prevention of neurodegenerative and cardiovascular diseases, or health bones maintenance. However, the potential positive impact of these compounds when incorporated in the human body is limited because of their bioavailability, which is mainly affected because of the hydrophobic properties of these compounds. In this way, different delivery systems were developed as suitable pathways for the bioavailability improvement of nutraceuticals. The most successful delivery systems to incorporate nutraceuticals include micro and nanoemulsions, micelles, nanoparticles, hydrogels, and solid-lipid nanoparticles. They achieved several improvements such as higher bioavailability, bioactivity maintenance, shelf-life improvement, or incorporation of the nutraceutical in a target system/organ. In this way, and considering the increasing demand for these products, the development of regulation is needed so that consumers' safety is assured, although any country has developed it yet. Thus, considering the increasing demand for these compounds, the aim of this study was to compile the available current data of nutraceuticals and also their safety concerns.