In recent years, there is an increase in occurrence of diseases worldwide such as cardiovascular, cancer, hyperuricemia, gouty arthritis, diabetes, neurodegenerative diseases etc. which can be treated with the available synthetic drugs. However, the synthetic drugs have several adverse effects on the physiological processes which make them highly critical to further use. The dietary phytochemicals that are thought to be safe for human consumption, including resveratrol, epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG), gingerol and myricetin have been identified as the key phytochemicals having anti-cancer property by modulating the several signal transduction pathways that either lead to cancer cell death or inhibit the cancer cell proliferation. The biochemicals extracted from plants and microbes, play very important role in regulating the concentration of purine-metabolic product uric acid in the serum which instead gets accumulated in the joints causing the inflammation. The synthetic drugs like allopurinol and febuxostat are known to inhibit the xanthine oxidase enzyme of the purine-metabolic pathway and regulate the uric acid production; however these drugs have reported to affect adversely heart and kidney physiological functions. The phytochemicals extracted are reported to inhibit the xanthine oxidase enzyme regulating the uric acid production; however the uricase enzyme isolated from the bacteria degrades the insoluble uric acid to the soluble allantoin which can easily be excreted by urination.

In addition to the clinical applications, the biochemicals extracted are having several applications including food processing, beverages, detergents, bio-energy etc.

The subtopics covered within this issue are listed below: