Isolation and Characterization of Bioorganic Phase from Food Source

Present and future health care systems are more demanding on the discovery and usage of novel drugs, which should have a potent target system with the pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic properties. Available drugs used currently are chemically synthesized and some of them are yet to be studied for their toxicity assessment. Bioorganic phase can be an indispensable field on isolating and identifying the metabolites from the food sources has become trend in recent days. Indian food systems are embedded with the Indian system of medicine. Indian food plants and Indian spices are highly enriched with the medicinal properties. Their applications are vital in industrial and pharmaceuticals. Hence, isolation of the novel compounds is one of the goal in bioorganic phase by various methods, it may be either traditional (decoction, maceration and solvent extraction) or by recent (ultra-sonication, microwave assisted and enzymatic extraction) methods. Identification and characterization of compounds can be done through chromatographic techniques and spectroscopic methods. This chapter deliberates with phyto-constituents from the common food plant products such as vegetables, spices and condiments. Their important phyto-compounds having pharmacological actions and how they were isolated, identified and characterized using different methods were discussed. This could help in gaining knowledge on the important compounds and their properties present in food products.