Preface

Cancer is a complex genetic disease which accounts for more than eight million deaths and roughly fourteen million new cases each year, inspite of the modern advancement in medical therapeutics in the world. Several evidences have shown that the plant-based foods consumption lower the risk and incidence of cancer and other degenerative diseases. Phytochemicals as secondary plant metabolites possesses antioxidant activity by inhibiting DNA damage induced by oxidative stress and thereby play crucial role in cancer chemoprevention. In contrast, the pro-oxidant activity of these phytochemicals/nutraceuticals has been found in the treatment of cancer in which they modulate cellular processes undergoing molecular alterations involve in the development of cancer. Furthermore, in vivo, in vitro and ex-vivo studies and the techniques employed for the diagnosis of cancer have been fully capable to expose phytochemicals having distinct impact on the prevention and treatment of cancer and other diseases.

The present book “Functional Foods for Health Maintenance: Understanding their Role in Cancer Prevention” summarizes the evidences, methods and techniques focused on identifying specific nutraceuticals capable of interfering and reducing the risk of cancer and other diseases development along with their underlying molecular mechanism. It contributes an up-to-date information and understanding in the context of interaction between nutraceuticals as chemotherapeutic agents and cancer progression which is a crucial contemporary discovery. Chapter one provides an overview of spices, herbs, fruits and vegetables used as medicine and studied as an important source for cancer chemoprevention. Chapter two shows that dietary intake of Allium species reduce the risk of cancer and have significant antitumor activities. Chapter three to ten mainly deals with the chemomodulatory effects of phytochemicals/nutraceuticals along with their varied action mechanisms including inhibition of gene expression, promotion of apoptosis of cancer cells, antiproliferative activity, anti-oxidant and anti-inflammatory effects. Chapter eleven elucidate the pharmacological properties of biomolecules derived from marine algae to provide baseline information for promoting anticancer research. Chapter twelve to sixteen comprehensively deals with the biomarkers, methods and models playing crucial roles in screening, asymptomatic and early stage detection, monitoring of the treatment therapy of cancer. Chapter seventeen highlights the role of nanotechnology in functional foods in order to enhance their bioavailability, absorption and biological activity. Chapter eighteen discusses the biological activity of nutraceuticals for the prevention and therapy of several diseases and its market demand because of increasing consumer knowledge of these compounds.

We express our gratitude to all the contributors. We would like to thank Prof. (Dr) Andreas Constantinou for writing foreword. Finally, it is a profound pleasure to thank Bentham Science for taking up the publication of this book. We hope that this book will provide recent scientific knowledge on chemotherapeutic potential of natural products and the techniques employed for the detection of cancer and other diseases and will lead to new discussions about the global scope of nutraceuticals.