From Medicinal Plants to Bioactive Molecules in Drug Discovery: Phytochemical Profiling, Pharmacological Activity, and Drug Interactions
A special issue of Molecules (ISSN 1420-3049). This special issue belongs to the section "Natural Products Chemistry".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 September 2026 | Viewed by 1098
Editors
Interests: pharmacological activity; medicinal and pharmaceutical chemistry; medicinal plants; antioxidants; history of pharmacy; history of medicine; pharmacy education; evolution of pharmacy practice
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Interests: phytochemistry; medicinal plants; natural compounds; antioxidants; pharmaceutical analysis; history of pharmacy; pharmacy education
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Natural products remain a major source of structurally diverse and biologically active molecules with significant potential for drug discovery and therapeutic development. Medicinal plants continue to provide valuable leads for the identification of novel bioactive compounds, while modern analytical techniques enable detailed phytochemical profiling, structural characterization and quality assessment. At the same time, pharmacological evaluation and mechanistic studies are essential for understanding efficacy, safety and potential interactions with conventional medicines.
This Special Issue aims to bring together original research and high-quality reviews covering the continuum from medicinal plants to isolated bioactive molecules and their pharmacological relevance. Topics of interest include phytochemical profiling, advanced analytical methodologies, biological and pharmacological activity assessment, plant–drug and compound–drug interactions, and translational pharmacology. Contributions addressing experimental models, mechanistic insights, safety evaluation and evidence-based integration of natural compounds into pharmaceutical are particularly encouraged.
The Special Issue seeks to provide a multidisciplinary platform that bridges natural product chemistry and pharmacology to support innovation in drug discovery and development.
Dr. Manuela Bianca Pasca
Dr. Daniela Gitea
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 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.
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. Molecules 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 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
- medicinal plants
- natural products
- bioactive molecules
- phytochemical profiling
- pharmacological activity
- plant–drug interactions
- translational pharmacology
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