Food-based therapeutics: A converging paradigm of traditional and modern food science

Abstract

Ayurveda, the art of medical treatment native to India, is a form of traditional medicine that is now regarded as a complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) by the developed world. It utilizes the potential of natural substances, for example, plants, herbs, fruits, and heavy metals, in the treatment of disease conditions. Food is also derived from these natural resources due to which, besides its nutritional value, also possesses medicinal value for human beings. Medical science, including modern medicine, recognizes the importance of food products in the prevention and, to some extent, treatment of many diseases. Ayurveda utilizes crude plant products for therapeutic purposes, while modern medicine uses purified extracts of the same products as drugs. With advances in food science, it is being realized that food may also be used in the prevention of many diseases such as, for example, Alzheimer's disease, diabetes mellitus, obesity, and cancer. The ancient science of Ayurveda gets its inspiration for treatment with these natural resources from Charaka Samhita, while modern food science/medicine tends to find scientific evidence for their use as therapeutics. With advancements in scientific techniques that can utilize Ayurvedic scientific knowledge and clinical experience for the scientific validation of traditional Indian and Chinese food-based therapeutics, the use of reverse pharmacology is in progress. Thus, there is a need to explore food-based drug discovery based on Indian and Chinese traditional medicine from clinic to laboratory using a reverse pharmacology approach. Here we describe such food-based therapeutics with selected examples based on previous studies.