Specialized Metabolites and Structure of Woody Plants

Dear Colleagues,

Forests play a crucial role in maintaining global ecological balance, providing numerous environmental, economic, and social benefits. In addition to being a natural habitat for a vast range of plants, animals, and other living organisms, forests play a significant role in mitigating climate change, soil development, and water regime regulation. The morpho-anatomy of forest species—trees and shrubs in particular—is uniquely adapted for these functions. Morpho-anatomical characteristics of leaves, twigs, wood, bark, and roots directly affect their resilience, nutrient absorption, and growth. Furthermore, particular isolated cells (idioblasts), tissues, and superficial glands are responsible for the synthesis of specialized metabolites, such as terpenes, cuticular wax compounds, phenolics, flavonoids, and alkaloids, which are vital not only for the plants’ own defense against pests and diseases but also hold significant pharmaceutical potential. These compounds have been widely studied for their medicinal properties, including antimicrobial, antioxidant, sedative, analgesic, hypoglycemic, spasmolytic, diuretic, anti-inflammatory, anticancer, and rubefacient activity, making forests not only vital ecosystems but also reservoirs of untapped bioactive compounds. Therefore, forests are indispensable to both global ecological health and as sources of biologically important compounds, demanding their conservation and sustainable use.

This Special Issue aims to provide new or comprehensive data on the correlation between the variability of the quantitative characteristics of certain epidermal structures, idioblasts, tissues, or organs, on the one hand, and the variability of the chemical composition of the specialized metabolites synthesized by these structures, on the other. Furthermore, studies of trees and shrubs as potentially viable sources of bioactive molecules are expected.

Finally, cutting-edge research on extraction techniques that have been developed to intensify the extraction of specialized metabolites from particular epicuticular structures, idioblasts, tissues, or organs of forest species is also welcome. According to the listed aims and scopes, original scientific articles as well as review articles are expected.

Potential topics:

• The correlation between the variability of the quantitative characteristics of certain cells, tissues, and organs of trees and shrubs, on the one hand, and the chemical composition of the specialized metabolites synthesized by these structures, on the other;
• Variability of morpho-anatomical characteristics and specialized metabolites of trees and shrubs depending on climatic, geographic, and orographic factors
• Effect of water stress on the micromorphology of wax crystalloids as well as the chemical composition of cuticular waxes;
• Distribution of terpenes, flavonoids, or alkaloids in trees and shrubs and their bioactivity;
• Effects of plant organ type, harvest time, and hydrodistillation conditions on yield, composition, and bioactivity of essential oils;
• Comparing different extraction techniques on essential oil profiles and yields.

Dr. Zorica S. Mitić
Prof. Dr. Dalibor Ballian
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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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. Forests is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

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• woody plants
• specialized metabolites
• morpho-anatomy
• bioactive compounds
• extraction techniques