Cytotoxic Activity of Plant Extracts

Dear Colleagues,

The plant world is an inexhaustible source of pharmacological agents and many of the secondary metabolites of plants have a forefront role in the discovery of new drugs. However, although the earth has between 250,000–500,000 plant species, just 1–10% have been examined biologically and chemically for their potential pharmaceutical value. The exponential growth in the last two decades of the use of traditional and complementary alternative medicine in Western countries has given new impetus to the search for natural compounds or plants extracts with pharmacological activity. In cancer therapy, it has been estimated that approximately 60% of antitumor-active compounds are derived from medicinal plants and other natural sources. Moreover, the combination of phytochemicals or herbal extracts with commercial drugs may be highly helpful in the treatment of cancer, and appears to be a very promising therapeutic strategy. Indeed, acting in synergy with traditional chemotherapies, relatively nontoxic natural products can bring about a positive or enhanced effect and also reduce the systemic toxicity caused by chemotherapies because of the lower doses required.  

The aim of this Special Issue is to bring together experimental scientific evidence to support the use of medicinal plants exhibiting anticancer pharmacological potential and to characterize the responsible constituents of the cytotoxic activity.

The information disseminated through this volume is hoped to serve as an interdisciplinary link between phytomedicine, cellular biochemistry, chemistry and the extraction and analysis technologies of bioactive natural compounds.

Potential topics include but are not limited to the following:

• In vitro and in vivo studies of the cytotoxic and chemopreventive activity of plant extracts
• Studies of the intracellular pathways involved in the cytotoxic mechanisms of plants extracts
• Synergistic activity of natural chemiopreventive compounds in combination with clinical chemotherapy
• Isolation and characterization of new biologically active phytochemicals from medicinal plant extracts
• Technological innovations of the extraction and purification of phytochemicals with potential pharmacological activity

Dr. Alessandro Attanzio
Prof. Luisa Tesoriere
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.