Editorial: Phytochemicals and their Effects on Human Health

The knowledge about the medicinal properties of natural products, including their action as healthy diet promotors, is widely recognized. Currently, the evidences that natural matrices possess specific bioactive properties, afforded by their chemical constituents, have become increasingly clear for the scientific community. Nevertheless, evidences from clinical trials and epidemiologic observations are still demanded namely regarding the ideal time of the treatment and doses of the selected species. Regardless of the increasing recognition of natural matrices health evidences, a higher prevalence of chronic and degenerative diseases have been observed as a direct consequence of the undergoing socioeconomic improvement. The fact that natural matrices are a source of bioactive compounds, such as polyphenols, vitamins, carotenoids and unsaturated fatty acids, stimulates its usage in several areas. In addition to the benefits associated with its direct use in the food industry, they may be used as ingredients in the formulation of functional foods, nutraceuticals and in the pharmaceutical industry, for the production of natural drugs (representing a significant portion of the global pharmaceutical market production). Due to the chemical, nutritional and medicinal properties of these matrices, in recent years there has been an increasing interest in exploiting their applications in health disorders conventionally treated with chemically synthesized products. These therapeutic properties associated to the fact that natural products have fewer adverse or side effects have triggered various scientific studies aiming to validate the use of biologically active substances that can be extracted from these valuable natural sources and justify the worthiness of the ongoing and future research in this field.