Medicinal Herbs: Important Source of Bioactive Compounds for Food Industry

Abstract

Medicinal herbs accompany people throughout life – from birth to the grave. Almost every day they come to our table as a part of food in various forms, many are used for technical and bioenergetics purposes, and there is also a large group of plants used in medicine, pharmacy and food industry. In the last decade, the consumption of herbs and spices has increased. They grow spontaneously and free of chemical additives, and some studies have shown higher nutritional value, often more significant compared to other common food plants. Medicinal herbs become increasingly important due to its potential beneficial health effects related to its nutritional composition, such as the presence of vitamins, phenolic, anthocyanins, flavonoids, tannins, among others. These raw materials are considered to be promising, economically and ecologically advantageous for the food industry. In this chapter will be describe selected medicinal herbs from Lamiaceae family – bioactive compounds and possibility for using in food industry.