Pharmaceutical and nutritional sciences have recently witnessed a bloom in the scientific literature geared towards the use of food\nplants for their diversified health benefits and potential clinical applications. Health professionals now recognize that a synergism\nof drug therapy and nutrition might confer optimum outcomes in the fight against diseases.Theprophylactic benefits of food plants\nare being investigated for potential use as novel medicinal remedies due to the presence of pharmacologically active compounds.\nAlthough the availability of scientific data is rapidly growing, there is still a paucity of updated compilation of data and concerns\nabout the rationale of these health-foods still persist in the literature. This paper attempts to congregate the nutritional value,\nphytochemical composition, traditional uses, in vitro and in vivo studies of 10 common medicinal food plants used against chronic\nnoncommunicable and infectious diseases. Food plants included were based on the criteria that they are consumed as a common\nfood in a typical diet as either fruit or vegetable for their nutritive value but have also other parts which are in common use in folk\nmedicine. The potential challenges of incorporating these medicinal foods in the diet which offers prospective opportunities for\nfuture drug development are also discussed.
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