Abstract :The term “nutraceutical” comes from far: in 1989 by Stephen DeFelice, founder and chairman
of the Foundation for Innovation in Medicine (DeFelice, 1989), derived it from the two words
"nutrition" (indicating a food component) and "pharmaceutical" (with reference to a drug) [1].
This term identifies a food or part of a food, which can be of vegetal or animal origin and can
have a potential pharmaceutical activity. Recently, a new definition of the concept on nutraceuticals
has been proposed to clear the disambiguity existing between them, food supplements, and
pharmaceuticals. In particular, nutraceuticals are defined as: i) for food of vegetal origin, a
nutraceutical is the phytocomplex; and ii) for food of animal origin, a nutraceutical is the pool of the
secondary metabolites. Both are concentrated and administered in the proper pharmaceutical form
[2]. They are capable of providing proven beneficial health effects, including the prevention and/or
the treatment of a disease [3].