M P SURESH
Freelance Consultant In Spice Area
India
Abstract Title:
Bioactives And Derivatives Of Select Indian Spices From Wellness To Modern Lives - Emerging Scenario
Biography:
A multi-disciplinary academic post-graduate and Doctoral Degree holder from World-class Madras University, across his career in Spices Board of India, he has handled myriad roles as Editor and Deputy Marketing Director and gained insightful experience in Marketing, Export Promotion, New Product Development, Quality and Safety of spices and spice products spanning over three decades. He gained hands on experience in policy formulation related to marketing, export promotion and export development including market access initiative projects in overseas markets, up-gradation of technology, and organised several National and International Seminars and Buyer-seller meets of Spices Board. Besides a Master trainer and Resource Person for various programmes on marketing and post-harvest improvement of spices, he presented several Papers in National and International Conference, Seminars and Workshops. He had also officiated as Chief Rapporteur in International Conferences including that organised by FAO and WHO.
Suresh has gained rich cross-cultural experience from his travel to Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, Singapore, USA, Brazil, China, Tokyo, Zurich, UAE and Bahrain.
He has been teaching at prestigious universities like IGNOU, Government of India and Pondicherry University as a Senior Guest Faculty over the last 35 years in multi-disciplinary subjects at Bachelor and Master Level and as a media personnel, he did programmes over Television and also covered national and international events for print media with credit for over 300 articles in leading English publications on a variety of topics. He is a recipient of Fellowship of UNDP.
Research Interests:
India has a vibrant medicinal farming sector spread over in its 52 Agro-climatic zones, and there are more than 1700 medicinal plants which are mostly utilized in Ayurveda system of medicine. The environment is acting as a driving force for raw material supply chain and the setting is perfect for the spices to flourish and many of them are exclusive to India. Beyond doubt, India is well recognized the world over as the global hub in manufacturing spice and spice products and today several of the Indian spices are characterized for its bioactive nutraceutical products in that several important phytochemicals like aromatic compounds, essential oils, phenolics and pigments of spices imparts consumer acceptability. In fact, the active components in the Indian spices are considered beneficial to human health other than its functional and immunomodulant properties. To mention a few, the most common bioactive compounds are curcumin in turmeric, piperine in black pepper, capsaicin in chillies, eugenol and acetyleugenol in clove.
The post-Covid-19 has brought in more emphasis among the people to look for the natural immunity booster like spices and herbs and thus becoming more health conscious. This resulted for differentiated responsible portfolios in the spice area fast getting drawn up with clinical validation outcomes among the nutraceutical ecosystem. Several Indian spices such as clove, cinnamon, ginger, black pepper and turmeric came to be used as immunity boosters along with their antiviral property. At the current pace and trend, India is likely to offer wealth of opportunities with its global supply of bioactive spice products worldwide. Due to changing preferential patterns and purchasing habits for health supplements consumers are more focused upon taking care of their health and are looking for safe, transparent, quality solutions so that they know what they are safely putting in their bodies.
The healthcare ecosystem is undergoing a transformation in the form of gut health, heart health, brain health, eye health and so on and thus, have brought in changes in the product formulation and product offering with Indian spices. For example, Curcumin has become an innovative product by enhancing its bioavailability to a higher level through innovative delivery system.
The combo effect of curcumin with bioperine from Black Pepper on Low Density Lipoprotein (LDL) and that of the bioactive compound Allicin in Garlic, Black Cumin Seed Oil with BCM-95 is a well-known concept for human health care. The enhancement of bioavailability of curcuminoids of Turmeric, the importance of Ginger and its bioactive compounds like gingerol and shaogol, zingiberene for digestives issues,thymol from thyme are some of the promising sources of diverse array of bioactive components.
The Indian Spices with its tremendous functional properties and medicinal values providing several health benefits and immunity is also having detox potential resulting in strategic nutrition for organ health. The holistic health solutions of Indian spices are geared to become more validated with clinical studies for the future broader concept for the benefit of human healthcare.
