Table 1 Glossary

Active substance/active pharmaceutical ingredient

Substances that exert a biological activity, which provoke a specific effect in a biological system. Active principles can exhibit activities comparable to that of synthetic active substances [10].

Analytical marker

Chemically-defined substances used for quality control and standardization procedures, selected according to their analytical value without dependence on potential therapeutic activities [10].

Botanical

One or more plants, a plant part, or an extract valued for its nutritional, medicinal, or therapeutic properties. Herbs are a subset of botanicals [11].

Botanical drug

Highly, but not completely characterized, complex extracts from plants that are clinically evaluated for safety and efficacy. Often, there is also a history of safe traditional human use [2].

Dietary supplement/functional food

Consist of components that are supplemented in the diet or thought to be healthy, such as vitamins, minerals, fats, botanicals, etc. [12].

Interaction/joint action

Actions that describe an altered outcome arising from the presence of two or more compounds that could be antagonistic, additive, or synergistic [13]. Potentiation results from additive and synergistic interactions that intensify the potency of a bioactive product [2, 14].

Multicomponent/complex interventions

Either a mixing of pharmaceuticals, an intended administration of a multicomponent combination of reference listed drugs, or the uptake of multicomponent preparations (e.g. botanicals, natural products or dietary supplements). Keith et al. defined multicomponent drugs as a therapeutic regimen that consists of a concerted pharmacological intervention of several compounds that interact with multiple targets [15].

Natural product

All substances produced by living organisms, including microorganisms or fungi.

Nutraceutical(s)

Provide medical or health benefits, including the prevention and/or treatment of a disease, in addition to preventing nutritional deficiencies [12].

Nutrigenomics

Studies the interaction between dietary components and/or nutrients and the genome by focusing on changes in transcript, protein and metabolite levels [16, 17].

Pharmacogenomics

Combines conventional pharmaceutical and toxicology study designs with global genomics technologies and appropriate disease model systems to provide a comprehensive view on the response of the genome and the biochemical machinery of the cell upon treatment, and to identify efficacy and toxicity-related mechanisms [18, 19].

Phytochemical(s)

Non-nutrient biologically active compounds in plants. A number of databases that e.g. contain information on chemical structure, metabolic pathways or health-related properties in humans have been only recently reviewed by Scalbert et al. [20].

Secondary metabolite

Substances produced by plants or microorganisms that are not necessary for primary or energy metabolism, but are important for ecological fitness. Evolutionary pressure on biosynthetic pathways resulted in an inexhaustible chemical diversity of substances, and some of them have potent pharmaceutical properties [21].