What can analysis do for nutraceuticals?

Nutraceuticals are foodstuffs, which contain health-promoting substances and whose constant intake can contribute to the overall well-being of people. They are currently considered among the most promising prospective means of maintaining lasting conditions of healthiness, especially during old age. In fact, the constant increase of expected lifespan in developed countries does not currently correspond to a similar improvement in health conditions of elderly people, leading to a dramatic increase in the number of people who are not self-sufficient due to deteriorating health in the last stages of their life. One of the basic tenets of nutraceutics is that several micronutrients commonly contained in food can have healthy effects. As a consequence, it is of the most importance to simply and reliably determine the content of these substances in the selected foods. The Laboratory of Pharmaco-Toxicological analysis is involved since several years in the analysis of different, potentially beneficial compounds in alimentary matrices, be they conventional foodstuffs or dietary supplements. At the same time, attention has been paid to the determination of potentially harmful compounds or markers of adulteration. In the last few years, different analytical methods have been developed in the Laboratory, for example for the analysis of melatonin, other antioxidants and amino acids in grapes and related foodstuffs; of glycyrrhizin and glycyrrhetic acid in liquorice and confectionery; of aloin and related compounds in Aloe vera leaves and supplements; of antioxidants in chamomile and so on. These methods were based on reliable, widespread techniques such as HPLC (with different kinds of detection) and capillary electrophoresis (CE), in order to make them easily reproducible in other laboratories for quality control and nutritional purposes.