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Valuable Sources of Bioactive Natural Products from Plants, Third Edition
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Valuable Sources of Bioactive Natural Products from Plants, Third Edition

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

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 March 2026 | Viewed by 1114

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Reneta Gevrenova

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Guest Editor
Department of Pharmacognosy, Faculty of Pharmacy, Medical University-Sofia, 2 Dunav Str., Sofia, Bulgaria
Interests: pharmacognosy; phytochemistry; pharmaceutical botany; natural products; saponins; phenolic compounds; flavonoids; HPLC and LC-MS strategies in specialized natural product elucidation; metabolite profiling; antioxidants; synergism between natural products and drugs
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Dimitrina Zheleva-Dimitrova

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Guest Editor
Department of Pharmacognosy, Faculty of Pharmacy, Medical University-Sofia, 2 Dunav Str., Sofia, Bulgaria
Interests: phytochemistry; pharmacognosy; pharmaceutical botany; natural products; phenolic compounds; sesquiterpene lactones; HPLC and LC-MS strategies in specialized natural product elucidation; acetylholinesterase inhibitors; enzyme inhibitory activity; antioxidants; obesity
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Vessela Balabanova

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Pharmacognosy, Faculty of Pharmacy, Medical University-Sofia, 2 Dunav Str., 1000 Sofia, Bulgaria
Interests: medicinal plants; phytochemistry; bioactive natural products; cultivation; pharmaceutical botany
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Medicinal plants are a valuable source of new bioactive compounds and promising molecular entities for use in drug development. The phytochemistry community has thus turned its focus to the medicinal value of traditional knowledge. In the last decade, a variety of hyphenated analytical techniques have been used to emphasize the potential of plants as a source of compounds with functional and medicinal relevance. On the other hand, there is an increasingly high demand for safe medicinal products with increased functionality and improved characteristics, necessitating intensive research in the field of specialized (secondary) plant metabolites. With the development of modern metabolite profiling methods and metabolomics, a holistic survey of natural extracts with valuable information on their chemical composition has become feasible. Linking in-depth compositional information to pharmacological data on annotated bioactive compounds acquired using screening strategies allows for the interpretation of results from a novel and holistic perspective. It also enables the prioritization of such natural products and the targeted isolation of new bioactive molecules of interest.

This Plants Special Issue will highlight the characterization of herbal extracts in terms of identification/annotation of plant metabolites and their potential to exert protective effects on biological systems.

Dr. Reneta Gevrenova
Dr. Dimitrina Zheleva-Dimitrova
Dr. Vessela Balabanova
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 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
  • specialized metabolites
  • phytochemistry
  • metabolite profiling
  • ethnobotany
  • phytopharmacology

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Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

15 pages, 401 KB  
Article
Phytochemical Composition and Antioxidant Activity of Pot Marigold (Calendula officinalis): The Impact of Light Modification
by Lidija Milenković, Zoran S. Ilić, Ljiljana Stanojević, Aleksandra Milenković, Ljubomir Šunić, Bratislav Ćirković, Dragan Božović and Žarko Kevrešan
Plants 2025, 14(22), 3512; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants14223512 - 18 Nov 2025
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Abstract
This study evaluated the impact of colored shade nets (control, pearl, red, and blue) on the phytochemical composition and antioxidant activity of two pot marigold (Calendula officinalis L.) varieties: the ‘Springer mix’ from Italy and a ‘domestic’ variety from Serbia. Phytochemical parameters [...] Read more.
This study evaluated the impact of colored shade nets (control, pearl, red, and blue) on the phytochemical composition and antioxidant activity of two pot marigold (Calendula officinalis L.) varieties: the ‘Springer mix’ from Italy and a ‘domestic’ variety from Serbia. Phytochemical parameters assessed included total extractive matter (TEM), total phenolic content (TPC), total flavonoid content (TFC), and antioxidant activity measured by DPPH and FRAP assays. The results indicate that colored shade nets significantly enhanced the accumulation of bioactive compounds and antioxidant activity, particularly in the ‘domestic’ Serbian variety, which consistently outperformed the Italian ‘Springer mix’. Blue nets notably improved extract yield and radical scavenging activity, red nets promoted flavonoid synthesis, while control conditions led to the highest TPC. The ‘domestic’ Serbian variety exhibited exceptionally high TPC (68.21 mg GAE/g dry extract) and TFC (55.55 mg RE/g dry extract) content. Correspondingly, potent antioxidant activity was observed, with EC50 values as low as 0.065 mg/mL under blue net conditions. Principal component analysis further validated the superior phytochemical profile of the Serbian variety. These findings demonstrate the effectiveness of light spectrum manipulation in enhancing the medicinal quality of pot marigold and underscore the potential of Serbian germplasm for high-value cultivation in phytopharmaceutical applications. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Valuable Sources of Bioactive Natural Products from Plants, Third Edition)
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26 pages, 9781 KB  
Article
Lipoxygenase Inhibitory Activity and Prostate Cancer Cytotoxicity of In Situ- and In Vitro-Cultivated Balkan Endemic Sideritis scardica Griseb
by Kalina Danova, Jasmina Petreska Stanoeva, Elena Stoyanova, Kalina Alipieva, Marina Stefova and Ina Aneva
Plants 2025, 14(21), 3263; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants14213263 - 25 Oct 2025
Viewed by 507
Abstract
Sideritis scardica Griseb., a Balkan endemic species traditionally used for respiratory conditions and wound-healing, was investigated for its 15-lipoxygenase (15-LOX) inhibitory and cytotoxic activities in relation to its phenolic composition. Aerial parts from the wild-collected and in vitro-cultivated plant were successively extracted with [...] Read more.
Sideritis scardica Griseb., a Balkan endemic species traditionally used for respiratory conditions and wound-healing, was investigated for its 15-lipoxygenase (15-LOX) inhibitory and cytotoxic activities in relation to its phenolic composition. Aerial parts from the wild-collected and in vitro-cultivated plant were successively extracted with hexane, chloroform, and methanol and the methanol extract was further fractionated into ethyl acetate, butanol, and water fractions. This study presents the first combined evaluation of LOX inhibition and cytotoxicity against prostate cell lines WPMY-1 (normal epithelial fibroblast/myofibroblast), PC-3 (epithelial adenocarcinoma, Grade IV), and LNCaP (epithelial carcinoma) and detailed phytochemical profiles of wild-collected and in vitro-cultivated S. scardica. The phytochemical analysis revealed distinct profiles: increased LOX-inhibition activity was related to a higher phenylethanoid/flavone glycoside ratio, while PC cytotoxicity was rather related to flavone glycoside domination in the plant preparations. The cytotoxic effect of the in vitro-obtained preparations was characterized by a marked selectivity when comparing their effects on WPMY-1, PC-3 and LNCaP cells. To our knowledge, this is the first report linking phenylethanoid/flavone glycoside profiles of in situ and in vitro S. scardica plants with dual LOX-inhibitory and anti-prostate cancer activities, supporting the plant’s potential as a sustainable source of bioactive compounds. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Valuable Sources of Bioactive Natural Products from Plants, Third Edition)
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