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Plants
Special Issues
Plant Bioactive Compounds, Functional Components and Functions
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Plant Bioactive Compounds, Functional Components and Functions

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

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 October 2025 | Viewed by 558

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Maurizio Bruno

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Guest Editor
Department of Biological, Chemical and Pharmaceutical Sciences and Technologies, Università degli Studi di Palermo, I-90128 Palermo, Italy
Interests: essential oils chemical composition; plant chemistry
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Natale Badalamenti

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Biological, Chemical and Pharmaceutical Sciences and Technologies (STEBICEF), University of Palermo, Viale delle Scienze, Parco d’Orleans II, Bldg. 17, 90123 Palermo, Italy
Interests: natural product drug discovery; phytochemistry; liquid chromatography; essential oils; gas chromatography–mass spectrometry; solid phase extraction; high-performance liquid chromatography
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Secondary metabolites isolated from natural sources, such as terrestrial and/or marine species, and above all those extractable from aromatic and medicinal plants, have been used by humans since ancient times for the treatment of various pathologies, illnesses, and for health. Natural compounds, and especially semi-synthetic derivatives, are widely used for the development of new drugs and can pave the way for the design of potential therapeutic agents. Ethnobotany, and the use of plants in the fight against various pathologies, has numerous advantages, including wide availability, diversified therapeutic actions, different pharmacological properties, and broad scientific knowledge. In the last two decades particularly, important in vivo and clinical studies have established the biological effectiveness of medicinal plants, confirming the important developments, such as antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, antiviral, antibacterial agents, etc., of numerous natural organic compounds.

However, some issues such as the accessibility of secondary metabolites, the sustainability of biological processes, bioavailability, and the exact structure–activity relationship still need to be explored further.

The aim of this Special Issue is to collect original research articles, short communications, and reviews on new perspectives in the chemical, biological, and biochemical properties of appropriate molecules and specific functional groups, trying to understand the exact molecular mechanisms by correlating them to the investigated therapeutic aspects.

Prof. Dr. Maurizio Bruno
Dr. Natale Badalamenti
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 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

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

  • natural products
  • phytochemistry
  • plant biology
  • molecular biology
  • physiology
  • plant–microbe interactions

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

20 pages, 3905 KiB  
Article
Antimicrobial Properties of Daucus nebrodensis Strobl.: A Multifunctional Essential Oil Against Bacterial Pathogens
by Giusy Castagliuolo, Antonella Porrello, Maddalena Cerasola, Giuseppe Bazan, Dario Antonini, Mario Varcamonti, Maurizio Bruno, Anna Zanfardino and Natale Badalamenti
Plants 2025, 14(14), 2227; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants14142227 - 18 Jul 2025
Viewed by 281
Abstract
Daucus is a large genus of the Apiaceae family, comprising around forty-five accepted species, that has a worldwide distribution. Species of this genus have been reported to have several traditional medicinal uses, and some of them are also largely used as food and [...] Read more.
Daucus is a large genus of the Apiaceae family, comprising around forty-five accepted species, that has a worldwide distribution. Species of this genus have been reported to have several traditional medicinal uses, and some of them are also largely used as food and spices. Daucus nebrodensis Strobl. is an endemic species of Sicily growing in the montane environments of the Madonie and the Nebrodi Mountains. In this work, the essential oil of D. nebrodensis (DnEO), collected wild near Messina (Italy), was chemically and biologically investigated. The hydrodistilled essential oil (yield 0.15%), obtained from fresh aerial parts, was evaluated by GC-MS, and It was particularly rich in monoterpene hydrocarbons, with sabinene (33.6%), α-pinene (17.2%), γ-terpinene (9.8%), and α-terpinene (7.6%) as the main metabolites. DnEO, and its main constituents, have been tested to evaluate their biological properties. Given the current problem of antibiotic resistance, it is of great interest to identify alternative molecules that could counteract the its progression. Therefore, DnEO was tested against Gram-negative species, such as E. coli DH5α and P. aeruginosa PAOI, and Gram-positive species, such as S. aureus ATCC6538P, B. subtilis AZ54, and M. smegmatis MC2155, showing notable antibacterial activity. The MIC for Bacillus subtilis, the most sensitive strain, was 18 mg/mL, while the MIC for Pseudomonas aeruginosa, the least sensitive strain, was 30 mg/mL. Moreover, interesting antibiofilm activity was observed against Mycobacterium smegmatis with a 55% inhibition. Its ability to form biofilms contributes to its persistence and resistance in clinical settings. These findings highlight the potential of D. nebrodensis EO as a source of bioactive compounds with promising antimicrobial and antibiofilm properties. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Plant Bioactive Compounds, Functional Components and Functions)
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