Emerging Bioresources with Nutraceutical and Pharmaceutical Prospects

Dr. Seem Patel is currently a researcher at the Center of bioinformatics and medical informatics at San Diego State University, USA. She has earned her doctorate from Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati, India by conducting research on food and pharmaceutical-grade polysaccharide production from natural isolates of lactic acid bacteria. Also, she had held position as an Assistant Professor in biotechnology at Lovely Professional University, India. She has published about 35 scientific papers in peer-reviewed journals and a book chapter. She serves as reviewer for about 30 international journals. Though she has a microbiology background and is presently involved in bioinformatics research, she is interested in nutraceutical development. This is her maiden endeavour in writing an entire book and she seeks constructive suggestions from experts in this area as well as general readers.

• Chapter 1: Introduction.- Chapter 2: An underutilized tropical plant Psidium cattleianum (Strawberry guava).- Chapter 3: Opuntia fruits as source of inexpensive functional foods.- Chapter 4: Food and pharmaceutical potential of Carissa genus.- Chapter 5: Portulaca oleracea: an untapped bioactive repository for health amelioration.- Chapter 6: Grape seeds: Agro-industrial waste with vast functional food potential.- Chapter 7: Newest and robust entrant to the functional food sector: Chia seeds.- Chapter 8: Prosopis genus as food and drug repository: Exploring the literature databases.- Chapter 9: Resurgence of interest in ancient grain quinoa (Chenopodium quinoa): An appraisal.- Chapter 10: A promising CAM therapeutic for multiple cancers: Milk thistle (Silybum).- Chapter 11: Chaga (Inonotus obliquus) mushroom: Nutraceutical assessment based on latest findings.