Natural Products in Skin Inflammation and Oxidative Stress

A special issue of Pharmaceuticals (ISSN 1424-8247). This special issue belongs to the section "Natural Products".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 25 December 2026 | Viewed by 336

Editor


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Guest Editor
Department of Acupuncture & Moxibustion Medicine, College of Korean Medicine, Gachon University, Seongnam 13120, Republic of Korea
Interests: herb

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Natural products have long served as valuable sources of bioactive compounds for the prevention and treatment of inflammatory and oxidative stress-related skin disorders. Skin inflammation is closely associated with excessive reactive oxygen species production, impaired barrier function, immune dysregulation, and tissue remodeling, contributing to conditions such as atopic dermatitis, acne, psoriasis, wound healing disorders, photoaging, and other dermatologic diseases. Recent advances in pharmacological, molecular, and translational research have provided new opportunities to clarify the mechanisms of natural products and to identify promising therapeutic candidates. This Special Issue aims to collect high-quality original research articles and comprehensive reviews focusing on natural products, herbal medicines, phytochemicals, marine-derived compounds, fermented products, and natural product-based formulations for skin inflammation and oxidative stress. Studies addressing antioxidant and anti-inflammatory mechanisms, skin barrier regulation, immune modulation, cellular senescence, tissue repair, pharmacological validation, safety, and translational applications are particularly welcome. Reviews and integrative studies using network pharmacology or other computational approaches are also welcome.

Dr. Jihye Hwang
Guest Editor

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Keywords

  • natural products
  • skin inflammation
  • oxidative stress
  • herbal medicine
  • phytochemicals
  • skin barrier
  • immune modulation
  • dermatologic therapeutics

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

20 pages, 19341 KB  
Article
Mechanistic and Preliminary Safety Profiling of a Multicomponent Natural Product-Based Injectable Formulation Targeting Skin Aging-Related Pathways: A Network Pharmacology and Single-Dose Toxicity Study
by Ji Hye Hwang and Chul Jung
Pharmaceuticals 2026, 19(8), 1317; https://doi.org/10.3390/ph19081317 - 20 Aug 2026
Viewed by 145
Abstract
Background/Objectives: Skin aging involves interconnected inflammatory, oxidative, hormonal, extracellular matrix (ECM), and cellular senescence-related mechanisms, supporting the need for multitarget approaches. This study aimed to evaluate the effects of a multicomponent natural product-based injectable formulation developed in Korean medicine practice, Dong-An Pharmacopuncture (DAP), [...] Read more.
Background/Objectives: Skin aging involves interconnected inflammatory, oxidative, hormonal, extracellular matrix (ECM), and cellular senescence-related mechanisms, supporting the need for multitarget approaches. This study aimed to evaluate the effects of a multicomponent natural product-based injectable formulation developed in Korean medicine practice, Dong-An Pharmacopuncture (DAP), on skin aging-related pathways. Methods: A network pharmacology approach was used to identify the active compounds, predicted molecular targets, and signaling pathways associated with DAP. Sixty-two active compounds from 11 constituent materials were screened, and 70 final targets were identified using STITCH-based prediction, intersection with GeneCards-derived skin aging-related targets, and quality filtering. Results: Herb-compound-target network analysis yielded 225 compound–target interactions across 292 edges. Protein-protein interaction analysis identified a highly connected network with 1,334 edges, and hub analysis converged on 10 core targets: TNF, IL6, ESR1, TP53, AKT1, PPARG, EGFR, PTGS2, CASP3, and PPARA. Gene Ontology and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes enrichment analyses identified four major mechanistic axes: inflammatory and oxidative stress regulation, hormonal skin homeostasis, tissue repair and ECM remodeling, and cellular senescence-related regulation. Because DAP is administered by injection, a Good Laboratory Practice-compliant single-dose subcutaneous toxicity study was additionally conducted in Sprague–Dawley rats, which showed no mortality, abnormal clinical signs, or histopathological findings attributable to DAP at 1.0 mL/head. Conclusions: The findings in this study provide a systems-level framework for the predicted multitarget mechanisms of DAP in skin aging-related pathways and support the need for further experimental validation of its predicted mechanisms and repeated-dose safety. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Natural Products in Skin Inflammation and Oxidative Stress)
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