Multidisciplinary Perspectives on the Authentication, Quality Control, and Standardization of Medicinal Plants
A special issue of Plants (ISSN 2223-7747). This special issue belongs to the section "Phytochemistry".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 20 December 2026 | Viewed by 60
Special Issue Editor
Interests: pharmacognosy; medicinal plants; ethnobotany; ethnopharmacology; ethnopharmacy; natural products; quality control; drug discovery; pharmacological validation; safety and toxicological assessment
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Medicinal plants and their derived products have been used for centuries in traditional medical systems and continue to represent an important source for drug discovery, pharmaceutical innovation, and therapeutic applications. Despite their widespread use and increasing global demand, significant challenges remain, including variability in raw materials, adulteration, lack of standardization, and inconsistencies in quality. These issues underscore the need for robust, multidisciplinary scientific approaches to ensure the authenticity, safety, efficacy, and reproducibility of medicinal plants and their derived products.
Recent advances in analytical chemistry, molecular biology, metabolomics, chemometrics, and pharmacognosy provide powerful tools for the accurate identification, characterization, and quality assessment of medicinal plants and herbal materials, supporting improved standardization and reliability.
This Special Issue aims to provide a comprehensive platform for original research and critical reviews addressing these challenges. It seeks to bring together contributions from multiple disciplines—including botany, pharmacognosy, natural product chemistry, phytochemistry, analytical chemistry, molecular biology and omics sciences, ethnopharmacology, pharmacology, toxicology, pharmaceutical sciences, clinical research, and regulatory sciences—to strengthen and advance the scientific foundation supporting the use of medicinal plants.
Topics of interest for publication include, but are not limited to, the following:
[Topic 1]: Authentication and Identification
- Botanical and pharmacognostic identification (macroscopical and microscopical).
- DNA barcoding and molecular authentication.
- Spectroscopic, chromatographic, and chemometric approaches.
- Chemotaxonomic and metabolomic strategies.
[Topic 2]: Phytochemical and Analytical Methods
- Phytochemical profiling and metabolomics.
- Advanced chromatographic and spectroscopic techniques (HPLC, GC–MS, LC–MS, NMR).
- Identification of bioactive markers.
[Topic 3]: Quality Control and Standardization
- Standardization of extracts and formulations.
- Detection of adulteration, contamination, and substitution.
- Traceability and supply chain integrity.
[Topic 4]: Sustainability and Regulation
- Good Agricultural and Collection Practices (GACP).
- Sustainable sourcing and conservation.
- Regulatory frameworks and pharmacopeial standards.
[Topic 5]: Biological and Pharmacological Validation
- Ethnopharmacological and pharmacological validation.
- In vitro, in vivo, and clinical evaluation of efficacy and safety.
- Toxicological assessment of herbal products.
[Topic 5]: Reviews and Methodological Advances
- Critical and systematic reviews in ethnopharmacology and pharmacognosy.
- Methodological advances in medicinal plant research.
Dr. Maryam Malmir
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-blind 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
- medicinal plants
- pharmacognosy
- ethnopharmacology
- authentication
- quality control
- standardization
- phytochemical profiling
- phytochemistry
- DNA barcoding
- metabolomics
- bioactive compounds
- plant-based products
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