Kioukia-Fougia Nassia, Georgiadis Nikolaos, Tsarouhas Konstantinos, Vasilaki Fotini, Fragiadaki Persefoni, Meimeti Evangelia, Tsitsimpikou Christina
General Chemical State Laboratory of Greece, 16 An. Tsocha Str., 11521, Athens. Greece.
European Food Safety Authority, Via Carlo Magno 1A, 43126, Parma. Italy.
Recent Pat Inflamm Allergy Drug Discov. 2017;10(2):72-85. doi: 10.2174/1872213X10666160923163700.
The modern way of life involves high stress levels, poor eating habits, lack of exercise, obesity and other detrimental health factors. Nutritional supplements (NS) are complexes of nutrients with variant activity that may infer reversal to nutrient depletion. They tend to be popular amongst social categories associated with the healthy life style, such as the elite and amateur athletes, military people and the general population.
An overview of the state of play with regard to nutritional supplements - natural and synthetic-, is important both from toxicological and commercial point of view.
From a thorough literature review on nutritional supplements, several patents of application have been identified and herewith reviewed which recommend natural vegetable extracts as food supplements for prophylaxis, therapy, protection of immune system, diabetes, oxidative stress, cancer, chronic inflammations and other health conditions. Besides, nutritional supplements of pharmacological validity and high popularity are discussed relative to their contents and group of use.
Cases of adulteration or unintentional contamination of commercial products with abusing substances (doping substances, narcotics etc.) or toxic compounds (heavy metals, plant toxics) have shed light to the problem of causing recalls of some products by the FDA.
From the safety/ quality point of view, NS lack of harmonisation and sovereign laws/ institutional controls on the market and their wide commercialization may possibly lead to risks to public health.
现代生活方式包含高压力水平、不良饮食习惯、缺乏运动、肥胖及其他有害健康的因素。营养补充剂是具有多种活性的营养复合物，可能有助于逆转营养缺乏。它们在与健康生活方式相关的社会群体中很受欢迎，比如精英人士、业余运动员、军人以及普通大众。
从毒理学和商业角度来看，对天然和合成营养补充剂的现状进行概述很重要。
通过对营养补充剂的全面文献综述，已确定并在此审查了几项专利申请，这些申请推荐天然植物提取物作为预防、治疗、保护免疫系统、糖尿病、氧化应激、癌症、慢性炎症及其他健康状况的食品补充剂。此外，还讨论了具有药理有效性且广受欢迎的营养补充剂的成分和使用群体。
商业产品被掺假物质（兴奋剂、麻醉品等）或有毒化合物（重金属、植物毒素）掺假或无意污染的案例，揭示了导致美国食品药品监督管理局召回某些产品的问题。
从安全/质量角度来看，营养补充剂在市场上缺乏协调一致以及主权法律/机构监管，其广泛商业化可能会给公众健康带来风险。
