Dear Colleagues,

In 2020, Dr. Philippe Jeandet, Professor of Food Chemistry at the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Reims, has his 60th birthday. In recognition of his outstanding lifetime scientific contribution, we have arranged a Special Issue to which you are invited to submit a manuscript.

Prof. Dr. Philippe Jeandet is born on 18 April, 1960, in Beaune, France, in the heart of the Burgundy wine-growing area. He studied biological sciences and specialized in plant sciences as well as in organic chemistry at the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Bourgogne. He earned his PhD degree in plant physiology and biochemistry in 1991 and 1996, respectively, from the same university. He started his research activities on natural products, namely, resveratrol, a phytoalexin from the Vitaceae. His PhD thesis was the first to be defended in a French University on resveratrol. His work was supervised by Prof. Dr. Roger Bessis. He received an Associate Professor position at the University of Bourgogne in 1993. Philippe Jeandet spent several months as a Visiting Scientist at the Federal Agronomic Station of Changins, Switzerland, in 1994 and as a Visiting Professor at the University of Kentucky, USA, in 1997. He was then appointed in 1997 as a Full Professor of Food Chemistry and Chairman of the Laboratory of Oenology and Applied Chemistry at the University of Reims (1997-2013). During this period, his research activities focused on the role of macromolecules on the physico-chemistry of wine, the wine proteome as well as on wine microbiology, while continuing some research activities on resveratrol and related stilbenes. He has been the Director (2003-2007) and Deputy Director (2008-2012) of the research unit “Vine and Wine of Champagne” and Adjunct to the Director of Research and Technology (2004-2010) in the Champagne-Ardennes area (French ministry of research). Today, Philippe Jeandet has joined the research unit “Induced Resistance and Plant Bioprotection”. He has resumed his research activities on natural products and applications with a particular interest in the chemistry and bioactivity of stilbenes. He has published over 300 papers in scholarly journals, edited three books, and edited or co-edited seven special issues. Philippe Jeandet has also presented more than 260 Communications to numerous symposia and congresses. He is/has been member of the editorial board of several journals such as American Journal of Enology and Viticulture, Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, Journal of Chemistry, International Journal of Wine Research, Plant Science Today, International Journal of Food Fermentation Technology, and Frontiers in Pharmacology and Molecules. In 2019, he joined the Pharmakon Neuroscience Research Network. According to Google Scholar data, Philippe Jeandet has over 10,000 citations and an h-index of 50.

Natural compounds produced by living organisms are the backbone of modern medicine. The therapeutic potential of natural products is as old as human civilization and used to treat several acute and chronic diseases. These compounds have diverse pharmacological activity and heterogeneous chemical structures that may lead to the commercial development of lead compounds.  A number of currently used Food and Drug Administration-approved drugs are derived from natural compounds. Furthermore, many synthetic and semisynthetic drug candidates with improved potency and safety are also inspired by natural compounds. The complexity and molecular diversity of natural products continue to offer novel lead compounds against countless pharmacological targets including cancer, atherosclerosis, diabetes, hypertension, malaria, cardiac diseases, and neurological disorders. Structural diversity is not only the unique feature of natural products that inspire drug discovery and development. Additionally, these compounds based on the study of their mechanisms of action often exert high receptor-binding and specific biological activity.

In this Special Issue, we welcome experts to contribute their original articles exploring the biological activity and structural diversity of chemical entities derived from mother nature. Review articles, particularly those dealing with the themes mentioned above, are also welcome.

Mr. Md. Sahab Uddin
Dr. Ghulam Md Ashraf
Prof. Dr. Lotfi Aleya
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 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

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.

• Acute disease
• Biological activity and mechanisms of action
• Bioavailability
• Chemical synthesis including whole-cell biocatalytic, enzymatic and green chemistry methods for their production
• Chronic disease
• Drug development
• Drug discovery
• Natural compounds
• Natural products
• Neurological diseases
• Structure elucidation
• Structure-activity relationship