The nutraceutical importance of Lamiaceae species and its correlation with phytochemistry

Lamiaceae is a family of plants included in the angiosperms group and comprising 12 subfamilies, 16 tribes, 9 sub-tribes, 236 genera and more than 7000 species. Plants belonging to this family are quite known all around the world for their traditional uses in both ethnobotany and cookery. In particular, this regards mainly the species belonging to the Nepetoideae sub family, widely employed as natural aromatizing, flavoring and spicing agents as well as natural food preservatives and for their medicinal and health promoting properties to treat several ailments such as inflammations, bacterial infections, digestive disorders and so on. Often these plants are used as such i.e., simple eating or processed in order to obtain decoctions, brews, herbal teas, infusions, dry powders, etc., according to the plant organs containing the active components and the final uses by which they will be employed. In this lecture, an exhaustive overview of the nutraceutics of Lamiaceae species will be presented with detailed particulars on the forms, the used plant organs, the practical applications and the areas of the world where these botanical entities are traditionally used for their health promoting properties and in ethno medicine. Moreover, this lecture will show how the nutraceutical properties of these species are strictly related with their phytochemical composition, also providing some examples from our own research experience.