Plant Bioactives: Chemical Characterization, Mechanistic Insights, and Biomedical Translation
A special issue of Molecules (ISSN 1420-3049). This special issue belongs to the section "Natural Products Chemistry".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 May 2027 | Viewed by 8
Editor
Interests: secondary metabolites; network pharmacology, exosomes, stress response; plant metabolism; plant defense mechanism
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Plants are a major source of structurally diverse bioactive molecules with important applications in drug discovery, disease prevention, and biomedical innovation. Alkaloids, flavonoids, terpenoids, phenolic compounds, lignans, saponins, polysaccharides, and other specialized metabolites exhibit anticancer, anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial, neuroprotective, cardioprotective, immunomodulatory, and metabolic regulatory activities.
Advances in chromatography, high-resolution mass spectrometry, nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, metabolomics, molecular modelling, and multi-omics technologies have substantially improved the discovery and characterization of plant bioactives. However, their biomedical translation remains limited by incomplete chemical characterization, variability in plant materials, inadequate mechanistic validation, poor bioavailability, metabolic instability, uncertain pharmacokinetics, and insufficient safety assessment.
This Special Issue, titled “Plant Bioactives: Chemical Characterization, Mechanistic Insights, and Biomedical Translation,” aims to present high-quality research linking phytochemical discovery with molecular mechanisms and translational development. Original research articles, reviews, systematic reviews, perspectives, and communications are welcome.
Topics of interest include the following:
- Isolation, purification, and structural elucidation of plant bioactives;
- Advanced phytochemical profiling, metabolomics, dereplication, and standardization;
- Structure–activity relationships and molecular mechanisms of action;
- Pharmacological activities and disease-related molecular targets;
- Molecular docking, molecular dynamics, network pharmacology, and artificial intelligence-supported discovery;
- Bioavailability, metabolism, pharmacokinetics, and toxicological evaluation;
- Synergistic interactions with other bioactives or conventional therapeutics;
- Nanoformulations, biomaterials, and targeted-delivery systems;
- Sustainable extraction and green processing technologies.
Submissions should include rigorous botanical authentication and adequate chemical characterization. Biological claims should be supported by appropriate controls, dose–response assessment, and mechanistic evidence. Studies based solely on preliminary antioxidant assays, poorly characterized crude extracts, or unvalidated computational predictions are discouraged.
We invite contributions from researchers in natural products chemistry, medicinal chemistry, pharmacology, plant science, biotechnology, toxicology, and related biomedical disciplines.
Dr. Adnan Amin
Guest Editor
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-anonymized 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
- plant bioactives
- metabolomics
- molecular mechanisms
- biological activities
- biomedical applications
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