Published in two volumes and with over 370 charts and tables, the workis a mine of information on bioactive ingredients and the science behind them.

Hard evidence for soft medicine...or new frontiers in nutritional science; science to lift the secrets of lesser known nutrient actives; rainbow herbal medicines; New-Age nutrient benefits...in 14 chapters, the author covers not what is seemingly evident but what is going on underneath, what will impact health maintenance and health risk reduction thinking over the next ten to twenty years and possibly much longer. Nature provides thousands upon thousands of different substances, many of which have still not been identified or described, let alone their action investigated. For an increasing number of these substances or substance families, positive health effects are being reported in the scientific literature.

The next decades will witness a revolution in our understanding of the crucial role that nutrients play in risk-reduction of many diseases in general, and in particular for those health problems associated with such rapidly changing conditions as oxidative-stressing lifestyles and degenerative diseases (Alzheimer's, neurodegenerative diseases, macular degeneration, arthritis, hearing loss and colon, breast, ovarian and prostate cancer, etc.)