New Research on Bioactive Natural Products: 2nd Edition

Dear Colleagues,

Chronic disorders like cardiovascular diseases (CVD), cancer, renal and neurodegenerative disorders, allergy and autoimmune diseases, persistent infections and associated manifestations, etc., are a global burden. Even though current approaches for prevention and therapy have high efficacy, they nevertheless usually come with high costs, undesirable side effects and environmental issues. Consequently, there is an increasing necessity for developing novel products containing natural bioactives, especially those derived from sustainable natural sources.

The objective of this Special Issue is to promote research in the field and outline the current status of and future perspectives on the valorization of bioactives from sustainable natural sources, such as the rich-in-natural-bioactives bio-cultures of several microorganisms and/or several by-products of the agro-food sector. In addition, this Special Issue hopes to highlight their importance as ingredients for the design and production of high-value, bio-functional medicinal products, including supplements, nutraceuticals and drugs, that can be used against the aforementioned inflammation-related chronic disorders. Emphasis will be placed on work that applies state-of-the-art methods of isolation and molecular analysis to several natural sources for obtaining and fractionating natural micro-/macro-bioactives from prime extracts/mixtures/filtrates/isolates/, etc., that are derived from sustainable natural sources. Furthermore, this Special Issue will also be focused on the OMICS-based full chemical characterization and structural elucidation of these biological samples, in tandem with tailored bioassays and in vitro/ex vivo/in vivo approaches, in order to evaluate structure–activity relationships and potential synergism(s) against specific bio-molecular pathways and cell/tissue/organ biological responses. This is of paramount importance for assessing structure–activity and causality, and will provide the molecular evidence for the utilization of the most optimum bio-functional natural bioactives or their mixtures for the production of targeted bio-functional products, based on current legislations and according to the needs of the industry and consumers.

Studies containing such targeted biomolecular experiments accompanied by appropriately designed approaches for evaluating the clinical safety and efficacy of products containing such natural bioactives, through animal studies and clinical trials, are also welcomed. Special attention will be given to work on such sustainable natural bioactives with higher safety, efficacy, bioavailability and biodigestibility. Relevant reviews and meta-analysis articles are also welcomed in this Special Issue.

Dr. Alexandros Tsoupras
Guest Editor

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