Chapter 5 - Biological macromolecules as nutraceuticals

Abstract

Biological macromolecules are fundamental compounds of life. Nutraceutical is the merging of the terms “nutrition” and “pharmaceutical,” and nowadays it is considered as a food or food product offering both health and medical benefits for the prevention and treatment of diseases. Nutraceutical properties of a molecule are important in both nutrion and health protection for consumers and nowadays are considered a main feature in nutrition and in the generations of food additives and technologies for human (and animal) health care. In this sense, these compounds as proteins, peptides, lipids, nucleic acids, carbohydrates, and especialized metabolites produced by several organisms display interesting nutraceutical and biological activities that might help in human health care. Currently, the introduction of these compounds in nutrition and frontier applications is gaining more importance because of their biological properties. This chapter is aimed to provide some recent knowledge regarding the nutraceutical and biological activities of these macromolecules of biological origin as well as their frontier applications in health care.