ABSTRACT

Nutraceuticals are natural compounds used to supplement the diet as a means to increase uptake of important nutrients in the diet of humans and other animals. Nutraceutical compounds are becoming an important commodity in the United States and globally as market demand increases for both puried and supplemented forms. In the 1990s, nutraceuticals from natural sources were most widely explored in “plants, marine organisms and micro-organisms, in particular actinomycetes and fungi” (Cocks et al., 1995, p. 115). Development of biopharmaceuticals primarily from animal tissue culture in serum media has recently enabled obtaining these products in other eukaryotic systems such as plants, algae, and fungi. Many nutraceuticals are extracted and puried from plants (e.g., antioxidants)

CONTENTS

16.1 Introduction ................................................................................................ 481 16.2 Commodity Biochemicals and Nutraceutical Bioproduction .............484 16.3 Lipid-Based Nutraceuticals ......................................................................485