Plant Secondary Metabolites: Extraction, Isolation and Biological Activity
A special issue of Molecules (ISSN 1420-3049). This special issue belongs to the section "Natural Products Chemistry".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 June 2026 | Viewed by 4
Special Issue Editor
Interests: phytochemistry; secondary metabolites; terpenoids; flavonoids; essential oils; isolation; structure elucidation; chemotaxonomy
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Plant secondary metabolites (PSMs) are organic compounds that are not directly involved in plant growth, development, or reproduction. Instead, they serve ecological functions such as defense against herbivores and pathogens, protection against UV damage, the attraction of pollinators, and competition with other plants. Since ancient times, plants and PSMs have been an essential part of human well-being, used for their nutritional value and/or as a source of medicinal components and agrochemicals. Over the last two decades, PSMs have been rediscovered as valuable and effective pharmacological agents with positive effects in the therapy of acute and chronic diseases (cancer, inflammation, neurological disorders, etc.), as well as eco-friendly alternatives to synthetic agrochemicals in pest and weed control.
The purpose of this Special Issue is to provide an up-to-date overview of the current research on plant secondary compounds and their potential application in the food, pharmaceutical, cosmetic, and agrochemical industries. This Special Issue welcomes the submission of full articles or reviews focused on new methods for the isolation, identification, and quantification of plant secondary metabolites, in vitro and in vivo studies of extracts, fractions, and isolated compounds, bioassay-guided fractionation, structure–activity relationships, mechanism of action, etc.
Prof. Dr. Antoaneta Trendafilova
Guest Editor
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Keywords
- secondary metabolites
- extraction
- chromatography
- identification (NMR, MS, etc.)
- hyphenated techniques (Gc-MS, LC-MS, etc.)
- biological activity
- structure–activity relationships
- mechanism of action
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