Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food: A bibliometric analysis of the most cited papers focusing on nutraceuticals and functional foods

The current study aimed to identify and analyze the 100 most cited papers on the topic of nutraceuticals and functional foods. Scopus database was searched to extract bibliometric data. Two-thirds of the 100 most cited papers were reviews. Papers were mostly published in food science and nutrition journals, and one-third were published in seven journals, namely: British Journal of Nutrition (6), Critical Reviews in Food Science and Nutrition (6), Journal of Food Science (5), Trends in Food Science and Technology (5), American Journal of Clinical Nutrition (4), Food Chemistry (4) and Journal of Nutrition (4). Topics with high citation counts dealt with prebiotics, probiotics, antioxidants and phenolic content. Hot topics with over 1000 citations per paper include bifido-bacterium (1147), colon (1032) and lipid metabolism (1013). The United States and Europe were major places of origin. These results can serve as a quick benchmarking reference for researchers or general public members.