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Insights on Inorganic/Organic Composites Containing Natural Bioactive Molecules
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Insights on Inorganic/Organic Composites Containing Natural Bioactive Molecules

A special issue of Molecules (ISSN 1420-3049). This special issue belongs to the section "Natural Products Chemistry".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 October 2025 | Viewed by 4913

Special Issue Editor

Dr. Stefania Cometa

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Jaber Innovation s.r.l., Rome, Italy
Interests: hydrogels; biomaterials; material science; surface characterization; thermal analysis
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Inorganic‒organic hybrid composites are one of the most attractive classes of materials due to their ability to combine the advantages of both organic and inorganic components in the same material. Natural organic molecules, obtained from plant extracts, represent a valuable source of new drugs and active ingredients for the development of next-generation, advanced, and multipurpose formulations with different applications, such as in pharmaceutical, cosmetic, biomedical, agri-food, catalysis, sensor, and environmental fields. The aim of this Special Issue is to point out on the recent strategies in the development of hybrid materials containing bioactive molecules of natural origin. In particular, the interaction between organic and inorganic components in these hybrids can lead to interesting features different from those of the starting materials. In this respect, an accurate chemical‒physical, structural, and mechanical analysis focused on these interactions would be of great interest, especially when a correlation between the structure and functionality of the hybrid composite could be argued.

Dr. Stefania Cometa
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

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Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 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

  • hybrid material
  • composite
  • natural compound
  • clay
  • drug delivery system
  • solid phase adsorption
  • bioactivity

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Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

22 pages, 2927 KiB  
Article
Analytical and Antimicrobial Characterization of Zn-Modified Clays Embedding Thymol or Carvacrol
by Loris Pinto, Federico Baruzzi, Roberto Terzano, Francesco Busto, Alessia Marzulli, Carmela Magno, Stefania Cometa and Elvira De Giglio
Molecules 2024, 29(15), 3607; https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules29153607 - 30 Jul 2024
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2045
Abstract
Carvacrol and thymol are broad-spectrum natural antimicrobial agents. To reduce their volatility and improve their antimicrobial performance, synergistic systems were prepared loading the active molecules in zinc-modified clays. Montmorillonite (MMT) and zeolite (ZEO) were modified with zinc ions (ZnMMT and ZnZEO), with well-known [...] Read more.
Carvacrol and thymol are broad-spectrum natural antimicrobial agents. To reduce their volatility and improve their antimicrobial performance, synergistic systems were prepared loading the active molecules in zinc-modified clays. Montmorillonite (MMT) and zeolite (ZEO) were modified with zinc ions (ZnMMT and ZnZEO), with well-known antimicrobial properties, and then with carvacrol or thymol, reaching the 26 ± 3% and 33 ± 2% w/w of loading, respectively. The resulting hybrid materials were characterized by FT-IR, XPS, XRD, TGA, and GC-MS to evaluate carvacrol/thymol release in simulating food matrices. Antimicrobial assays carried out using spoiler and pathogenic bacterial strains showed that the antimicrobial activity of both thymol and carvacrol was largely preserved once they were loaded into Zn-modified clays. However, MMT hybrids showed an antibacterial activity significantly higher than ZEO hybrids at 50 mg/mL of thymol and carvacrol. For this reason, deeper antimicrobial evaluations were carried out only for ZnMMT composites. ZnMMT loaded with thymol or carvacrol produced inhibition zones against most of the target strains, also at 3.12 mg/mL, while the positive controls represented by the single molecule thymol or carvacrol were not active. The hybrid materials can be useful for applications in which the antimicrobial activity of natural molecules need to be displayed over time as requested for the control of microbial pathogens and spoilage bacteria in different applications, such as active packaging, biomaterials, and medical devices. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Insights on Inorganic/Organic Composites Containing Natural Bioactive Molecules)
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21 pages, 4419 KiB  
Article
Development, Analytical Characterization, and Bioactivity Evaluation of Boswellia serrata Extract-Layered Double Hydroxide Hybrid Composites
by Stefania Cometa, Francesco Busto, Andrea Castellaneta, Andrea Cochis, Ziba Najmi, Rosanna Rizzi, Ilario Losito and Elvira De Giglio
Molecules 2023, 28(18), 6449; https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules28186449 - 5 Sep 2023
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 2228
Abstract
Boswellia serrata Roxb. extract (BSE), rich in boswellic acids, is well known as a potent anti-inflammatory natural drug. However, due to its limited aqueous solubility, BSE inclusion into an appropriate carrier, capable of improving its release in the biological target, would be highly [...] Read more.
Boswellia serrata Roxb. extract (BSE), rich in boswellic acids, is well known as a potent anti-inflammatory natural drug. However, due to its limited aqueous solubility, BSE inclusion into an appropriate carrier, capable of improving its release in the biological target, would be highly desirable. Starting with this requirement, new hybrid composites based on the inclusion of BSE in a lamellar solid layered double hydroxide (LDH), i.e., magnesium aluminum carbonate, were developed and characterized in the present work. The adopted LDH exhibited a layered crystal structure, comprising positively charged hydroxide layers and interlayers composed of carbonate anions and water molecules; thus, it was expected to embed negatively charged boswellic acids. In the present case, a calcination process was also adopted on the LDH to increase organic acid loading, based on the replacement of the original inorganic anions. An accurate investigation was carried out by TGA, PXRD, FT-IR/ATR, XPS, SEM, and LC-MS to ascertain the nature, interaction, and quantification of the active molecules of the vegetal extract loaded in the developed hybrid materials. As a result, the significant disruption of the original layered structure was observed in the LDH subjected to calcination (LDHc), and this material was able to include a higher amount of organic acids when its composite with BSE was prepared. However, in vitro tests on the composites’ bioactivity, expressed in terms of antimicrobial and anti-inflammatory activity, evidenced LDH–BSE as a better material compared to BSE and to LDHc–BSE, thus suggesting that, although the embedded organic acid amount was lower, they could be more available since they were not firmly bound to the clay. The composite was able to significantly decrease the number of viable pathogens such as Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus, as well as the internalization of toxic active species into human cells imposing oxidative stress, in comparison to the BSE. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Insights on Inorganic/Organic Composites Containing Natural Bioactive Molecules)
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