Exploring Functional Compounds from Food Plants: Extraction and Analysis
A special issue of Foods (ISSN 2304-8158). This special issue belongs to the section "Plant Foods".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 25 February 2026
Special Issue Editors
Interests: extract analysis; essential oils; traditional medicine
Interests: pharmaceutical botany; secondary metabolites; biomass extraction
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Food plants are rich sources of bioactive compounds with potential health benefits. Extracting and analysing these compounds is essential for understanding their effectiveness, stability, and uses in food industries. To this aim, different extraction methods, like solvent extraction, supercritical fluid extraction, and ultrasonic-assisted extraction, and analytical techniques, such as high-performance liquid chromatography, gas chromatography-mass spectrometry, and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, are commonly used in this field. Recent advances in green extraction technologies, omics-based, and computational approaches have further improved the accuracy and sustainability of these processes. Understanding the full profile of functional compounds in food plants supports the development of health-promoting products and contributes to sustainable agriculture and food innovation. Ongoing research in this area is vital for maximising the benefits of plant-derived bioactives for human health. This Special Issue welcomes original research articles and reviews investigating the world of functional compounds from food plants. Contributions addressing topics such as extraction methods, computational exploration, and analytical investigations will be considered.
Prof. Dr. Francesco Saverio Robustelli della Cuna
Dr. Valeria Cavalloro
Guest Editors
Manuscript Submission Information
Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.
Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Foods is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.
Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2900 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.
Keywords
- food chemistry
- secondary metabolites
- bioactivity
- computational chemistry
- green extraction
- food by-products
- green metrics
- metabolomic
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