Safety and toxicity evaluation of nutraceuticals in animal models.

Nutraceuticals are derived from various natural sources such as medicinal plants, marine organisms, vegetables, and fruits. Most of them possess antioxidant or anti-inflammatory properties and are claimed to provide protection against many diseases if taken regularly. At the same time, toxicological studies of nutraceuticals have been limited, so the safety of many of them cannot be guaranteed. Animals share many genetic, anatomical, and physiological similarities with humans, and they continue to be widely used in preclinical studies of drugs, in spite of a lack of their validity which is due to the great phenotypic differences. The absence of toxicity in animals provides little probability that adverse reactions will also be absent in humans. There are currently thousands of researchers involved in the development of alternatives to animal use in the life sciences. Statistical machine-learning tools, once developed, might become a powerful means to explain the complex physiological effects of nutraceuticals. The use of different models and algorithms can provide a more scientific basis for risk assessment of nutraceuticals for humans.