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Pharmaceuticals
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Medicinal Plants: Current Insights into Their Biological Activities and Integration...
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Medicinal Plants: Current Insights into Their Biological Activities and Integration with Micro- or Nanotechnologies

A special issue of Pharmaceuticals (ISSN 1424-8247).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 28 November 2025 | Viewed by 2817

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Jorge L. Mejía Méndez

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Guest Editor
Programa de Edafología, Colegio de Postgraduados, Campus Montecillo, Carr. México Texcoco km 36.4, Montecillo 56230, Mexico
Interests: nanotechnology; medicinal plants; biological activities
Prof. Dr. Gildardo Sanchez-Ante

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Guest Editor
Tecnologico de Monterrey, Escuela de Ingeniería y Ciencias, Av. Gral. Ramón Corona No 2514, Colonia Nuevo México, Zapopan, Jalisco, Mexico
Interests: machine learning; algorithm design; nanotechnology
Prof. Dr. Edgar R. López-Mena

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Tecnologico de Monterrey, Escuela de ingeniería y Ciencias, Av. Gral. Ramón Corona No 2514, Colonia Nuevo México, Zapopan, Mexico
Interests: nanotechnology; bioactive nanomaterials; material engineering and physics
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Medicinal plants represent a major source of secondary metabolites with therapeutic activities. The biological activities of natural products are attributed to the configuration and conformation of their functional groups, which can act indiscriminately toward major molecular and cellular components of different organisms. In drug development, the structural diversity of natural products such as alkaloids, triterpenes, and flavonoids has been exploited to formulate innovative antibacterial, anticancer, anti-inflammatory, and antioxidant agents. However, their clinical application is hampered by their poor solubility, limited specificity, and biocompatibility. Current technologies to overcome these drawbacks involve the use of micro- and nanomaterials to entrap them in rational-designed matrixes or leverage their phytochemical content to synthesize bioactive objects, yielding structures with potential pharmaceutical uses. This Special Issue invites authors to contribute original research articles, reviews, or communications regarding the evaluation of medicinal plants' biological activities, integrating spectroscopy and chromatography techniques to establish an approximate relationship between phytochemical content and observed therapeutic performance. We also welcome studies in which extracts or isolated compounds from medicinal plants have been used to synthesize bioactive micro- or nanostructures.

Dr. Jorge L. Mejía Méndez
Prof. Dr. Gildardo Sanchez-Ante
Dr. Edgar R. López-Mena
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. Pharmaceuticals is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly 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 2900 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
  • plant extracts
  • bioactive nanomaterials
  • inorganic materials
  • organic materials
  • drug delivery systems

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Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

19 pages, 4249 KiB  
Article
Carbon Dots Extracted from the Plant Gardenia jasminoides Ameliorates Ischemia–Reperfusion Injury
by Liyang Dong, Haojia Zhang, Kai Wang, Chunyu Wang, Yiping Wu, Wei Shao, Kunjing Liu, Xin Lan, Jinhua Han, Jialin Cheng, Changxiang Li, Xueqian Wang, Fafeng Cheng and Qingguo Wang
Pharmaceuticals 2025, 18(6), 870; https://doi.org/10.3390/ph18060870 - 11 Jun 2025
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Abstract
Background: Ischemic stroke (IS) is probably the most important acute serious illness, where interdisciplinary approach is essential to offer the best chance for survival and functional recovery of patients. Carbon dots (CDs) with multifaceted advantages have provided hope for development brand-new nanodrug for [...] Read more.
Background: Ischemic stroke (IS) is probably the most important acute serious illness, where interdisciplinary approach is essential to offer the best chance for survival and functional recovery of patients. Carbon dots (CDs) with multifaceted advantages have provided hope for development brand-new nanodrug for treating thorny diseases. Methods: This study developed a green and environmentally responsible calcination method to prepare novel Gardenia jasminoides Carbonisata (GJC-CDs) as promising drug for ischemic stroke treatment. Results: In this work, we isolated and characterized for the first time a novel carbon dots (GJC-CDs) from the natural plant G. jasminoides. Results displayed that green GJC-based CDs with tiny sizes and abundant functional groups exhibited solubility, which may be beneficial for its settled biological activity. The neuroprotective effect of carbon dots from G. jasminoides were evaluated using the classical middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO) model. Assessing the infarct volume content of the ischemic cerebral hemisphere and determining the serum tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), interleukin-1β (IL-1β), interleukin-6 (IL-6), interleukin-10 (IL-10), reduced glutathione (GSH), superoxide dismutase (SOD), and malondialdehyde (MDA) levels of the mice in each group, it was evident that pre-administration of the drug by GJC-CDs significantly reduced the infarct volume as well as attenuated inflammatory responses and excessive oxidative stress in MCAO mice. Furthermore, in vitro cellular experiments demonstrated that GJC-CDs have good biosafety and anti-inflammatory and antioxidant capacity. Conclusions: Overall, GJC-CDs performs neuroprotective effect on cerebral ischemia and reperfusion injury, which not only provides evidence for further broadening the biological application of acute ischemic stroke but also offers novel strategy for the application of nanomedicine to treat acute diseases. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Medicinal Plants: Current Insights into Their Biological Activities and Integration with Micro- or Nanotechnologies)
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20 pages, 4169 KiB  
Article
Kalanchoe tomentosa: Phytochemical Profiling, and Evaluation of Its Biological Activities In Vitro, In Vivo, and In Silico
by Jorge L. Mejía-Méndez, Gildardo Sánchez-Ante, Yulianna Minutti-Calva, Karen Schürenkämper-Carrillo, Diego E. Navarro-López, Ricardo E. Buendía-Corona, Ma. del Carmen Ángeles González-Chávez, Angélica Lizeth Sánchez-López, J. Daniel Lozada-Ramírez, Eugenio Sánchez-Arreola and Edgar R. López-Mena
Pharmaceuticals 2024, 17(8), 1051; https://doi.org/10.3390/ph17081051 - 9 Aug 2024
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2070
Abstract
In this work, the leaves of K. tomentosa were macerated with hexane, chloroform, and methanol, respectively. The phytochemical profiles of hexane and chloroform extracts were unveiled using GC/MS, whereas the chemical composition of the methanol extract was analyzed using UPLC/MS/MS. The antibacterial activity [...] Read more.
In this work, the leaves of K. tomentosa were macerated with hexane, chloroform, and methanol, respectively. The phytochemical profiles of hexane and chloroform extracts were unveiled using GC/MS, whereas the chemical composition of the methanol extract was analyzed using UPLC/MS/MS. The antibacterial activity of extracts was determined against gram-positive and gram-negative strains through the minimal inhibitory concentration assay, and in silico studies were implemented to analyze the interaction of phytoconstituents with bacterial peptides. The antioxidant property of extracts was assessed by evaluating their capacity to scavenge DPPH, ABTS, and H2O2 radicals. The toxicity of the extracts was recorded against Artemia salina nauplii and Caenorhabditis elegans nematodes. Results demonstrate that the hexane and chloroform extracts contain phytosterols, triterpenes, and fatty acids, whereas the methanol extract possesses glycosidic derivatives of quercetin and kaempferol together with sesquiterpene lactones. The antibacterial performance of extracts against the cultured strains was appraised as weak due to their MIC90 values (>500 μg/mL). As antioxidants, treatment with extracts executed high and moderate antioxidant activities within the range of 50–300 μg/mL. Extracts did not decrease the viability of A. salina, but they exerted a high toxic effect against C. elegans during exposure to treatment. Through in silico modeling, it was recorded that the flavonoids contained in the methanol extract can hamper the interaction of the NAM/NAG peptide, which is of great interest since it determines the formation of the peptide wall of gram-positive bacteria. This study reports for the first time the biological activities and phytochemical content of extracts from K. tomentosa and proposes a possible antibacterial mechanism of glycosidic derivatives of flavonoids against gram-positive bacteria. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Medicinal Plants: Current Insights into Their Biological Activities and Integration with Micro- or Nanotechnologies)
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