Plant-Derived Bioactive Molecules and Substances and Their Applications as Health-Promoting Agents in Humans: Biochemical Mechanisms, Analytical Strategies, and Functional Properties
A special issue of Plants (ISSN 2223-7747). This special issue belongs to the section "Phytochemistry".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 December 2026 | Viewed by 2697
Editor
Interests: metabolomics; phytochemicals; analytical strategies; agri-food by-products; secondary metabolites; quality assessment; nutraceutical properties; sustainability; tree-crops
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Bioactive substances and molecules derived from natural sources are very important in modern scientific approaches but also in traditional ones, for disease prevention and human health. Interest in the evaluation of the phytochemical composition and relative health-promoting properties of secondary metabolites derived from different natural matrices (e.g., plants, foods, agrifood by-products and wastes, herbals, etc.) has increased due to their positive effects in contributing to human well-being. This Special Issue aims to consider studies that assess bioactive molecules from natural sources, such as alkaloids, terpenoids, phenolics, carotenoids and other bioactive classes, in relation to their biological properties, analytical characterization and practical applications in herbal, nutraceutical and food matrices.
Proposed studies should present innovative analytical and extraction approaches (e.g., green technologies, chromatographic techniques and spectroscopic advances) to better characterize the complex plant matrices. Approaches that evaluate and explore the metabolic pathways and bioavailability of key phytocompounds, assess their in vivo/in vitro health-promoting and/or side effects or establish mechanistic connections between biological functions and compound structures will be particularly considered. Research focused on omics-based and multivariate approaches for the integration of phytochemical data with functional findings is also welcome.
This Special Issue aims to correlate phytochemical insights with new and sustainable applications in therapeutic innovation, preventive nutrition and food science by multidisciplinary investigations from molecular biology and analytical chemistry to pharmacology and nutrition science in order to contribute to evidence-based utilization of plant bioactive compounds in promoting disease prevention and human health.
Dr. Dario Donno
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. Plants 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
- functional foods
- metabolomics
- nutraceuticals
- plant metabolites
- dietary antioxidants
- health-promoting effects
- sustainable extraction technologies
- molecular mechanisms
Benefits of Publishing in a Special Issue
- Ease of navigation: Grouping papers by topic helps scholars navigate broad scope journals more efficiently.
- Greater discoverability: Special Issues support the reach and impact of scientific research. Articles in Special Issues are more discoverable and cited more frequently.
- Expansion of research network: Special Issues facilitate connections among authors, fostering scientific collaborations.
- External promotion: Articles in Special Issues are often promoted through the journal's social media, increasing their visibility.
- Reprint: MDPI Books provides the opportunity to republish successful Special Issues in book format, both online and in print.
Further information on MDPI's Special Issue policies can be found here.
