Book excerpt: Nutraceuticals and Health Care explores the role of plant-based nutraceuticals as food ingredients and as therapeutic agents for preventing various diseases. The book assesses the role of nutraceuticals in addressing cardiovascular disease, cancer, diabetes, and obesity by highlighting the derivatives, extraction, chemistry, mechanism of action, pharmacology, bioavailability, and safety of specific nutraceuticals. It analyzes twenty one nutraceuticals in a systematic way, providing a welcomed reference for nutrition researchers, nutritionists and dieticians, as well as other scientists studying related areas in food science, technology or agriculture. Students studying related topics will also benefit from this material. - Serves as a foundation for analyzing the efficiency and validity of various plant-derived nutraceuticals - Explores the use of nutraceuticals as a therapeutic tool in the prevention of chronic and degenerative diseases - Highlights the derivatives, extraction, chemistry, mechanism of action, pharmacology, bioavailability, and safety of specific nutraceuticals