Green Extraction and Bioactivity of Plant Active Compounds

A special issue of Plants (ISSN 2223-7747). This special issue belongs to the section "Phytochemistry".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 January 2027 | Viewed by 1591

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Department of Organic Chemistry, Biochemistry and Catalysis, Faculty of Chemistry, University of Bucharest, 90-92 Panduri Street, 050663 Bucharest, Romania
Interests: synthesis; spectral characterization; anti-tumor activity of some pyrazole derivatives
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Department of Inorganic Chemistry, Organic Chemistry, Biochemistry and Catalysis, Faculty of Chemistry, University of Bucharest, 90-92 Sos Panduril, RO-050663 Bucharest, Romania
Interests: synthesis; benzimidazole; dft; nlo properties; hyperpolarizability (β)
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Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

There is currently a growing interest in developing efficient methods for extracting bioactive compounds from plants while preserving their integrity. Traditional extraction methods, which use organic solvents at high temperatures, are widely used, but can sometimes degrade sensitive bioactive compounds and create environmental concerns.

Alternatively, unconventional extraction methods have been developed, also using environmentally friendly solvents. In recent years, non-thermal extraction technologies, such as high-pressure processing (HPP), have gained attention as more sustainable alternatives successfully applied to extract a wide range of bioactive compounds.

In this regard, pretreatments are of interest, which aim to modify the structure of the plant cell wall, in order to significantly increase the permeability of the HPP extraction efficiency. Plant cell walls contain complex polysaccharides such as cellulose, hemicellulose, and lignin, which act as barriers to mass transfer, limiting the accessibility of intracellular compounds during extraction.

Currently, bioactive compounds from plants are enjoying increasing interest, as such, your expertise on this topic could contribute to increasing interest in this important Special Issue.

We cordially invite researchers working in this field to contribute original research articles, communications and review articles. Papers on individual compounds are also welcome.

Dr. Christina Marie Zalaru
Dr. Maria Marinescu
Guest Editors

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Keywords

  • green extractions
  • bioactive compounds
  • aromatic plants
  • medicinal plants
  • marine organisms
  • herbaceous plants
  • woody plants
  • conventional extraction techniques
  • unconventional extraction techniques
  • antitumor activity
  • antioxidant activity
  • antimicrobial activity
  • antiviral activity
  • antidiabetic activity
  • cytotoxicity
  • chromatographic analysis techniques

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

17 pages, 7675 KB  
Article
Phytochemical Profiling of Sticta caulescens De Not.: Green Extraction and Multiscale Chemotaxonomic Analysis
by Nicolás Cifuentes-Araya, Diego Valdivia, Mariano Walter Pertino, Daniela Marroquín-Guerra, Osvaldo Yáñez, Olimpo García-Beltrán, Alejandro Ardiles and Carlos Areche
Plants 2026, 15(11), 1761; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants15111761 - 5 Jun 2026
Viewed by 1164
Abstract
The aim of this research was to identify the wealth of secondary metabolites in the Chilean lichen Sticta caulescens, applying green chemistry approaches and comparing the following two extraction methods: (a) conventional maceration with methanol, and (b) microwave-assisted extraction (MAE) using ethyl [...] Read more.
The aim of this research was to identify the wealth of secondary metabolites in the Chilean lichen Sticta caulescens, applying green chemistry approaches and comparing the following two extraction methods: (a) conventional maceration with methanol, and (b) microwave-assisted extraction (MAE) using ethyl lactate as a solvent. In addition, chemoinformatic and chemotaxonomic studies were conducted on S. caulescens and other species of the genus Sticta, which have been reported in previous studies. A UHPLC/ESI-MS/MS analysis allowed for the identification of 32 metabolites obtained from maceration and 33 from MAE, considering carbohydrates, aromatic compounds, acids, depsides, depsidones, dibenzofurans, lipids, anthraquinones, and triterpenes. Maceration using methanol yielded a slightly higher extract percentage than with ethyl lactate (6.3% versus 5.0%), while MAE extracted an almost identical spectrum of metabolites using ethyl lactate,—though including one compound detected only under MAE conditions. This highlighted both the method efficiency and selectivity. This study also incorporates a comprehensive chemoinformatic and chemotaxonomic analysis of secondary metabolites across 12 Sticta species. A computational comparison (Morgan fingerprints, Jaccard similarity, hierarchical clustering, Murcko scaffolds) demonstrated that S. caulescens is one of the most chemically diverse species, closely related to S. cordillerana, and forming part of a major chemotaxonomic lineage, which is characterized by high scaffold richness and shared aromatic/depsidone biosynthetic pathways. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Green Extraction and Bioactivity of Plant Active Compounds)
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