Dear Colleagues,

Plants are recognized to be a source of phytochemicals, such as phenolic compounds with potent anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties that warrant protective effects against several chronic inflammatory diseases and others. Phenolic-rich extracts have been used to formulate different products available in the ever-growing marketplace of healthy products, such as supplements and therapeutic herbal medicines that claim to ameliorate or treat inflammatory chronic diseases. Despite the solid evidence regarding the health benefits of phenolic-rich products, concerns about the quality, safety and efficacy of available products are raised regularly. Regulatory agencies are required to guarantee their safety, security and quality, but the quality assurance of these products remains a challenge, mainly regarding the early phases of the productive chain, the lack of appropriate control of growing conditions, the complexity of the production chain commonly involving multiple countries and the standardization of the extraction process. All these steps lead to variations in the final product chemical composition, which impairs the reproducibility of their performance. Moreover, the quality requirements of supplements differ from herbal medicines, and some products lack information about the standardization of the chemical profile and the content of markers related to dietary effect. Unlike herbal medicines, supplements are not intended to treat, diagnose, prevent or cure diseases. Therefore, it is critical to study, discuss and establish a reliable supply chain to ensure the quality control of plant-derived products with health claims.

The aim of this Special Issue is to provide a comprehensive view of the current scenario regarding the quality assurance of herbal medicines and supplements rich in phenolics, including supply chain, methodological studies, formulation, stability and other topics that might be of interest. We invite original research and critical review papers that will help to consolidate our understanding in this area. Potential topics include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Study of growing conditions of medicinal plants and their impact on final products;
• Molecular characterization of enzymes or bioactive compounds between plants varieties and cultivars;
• Therapeutic botanical extracts with defined chromatographic profile and content of markers;
• Analytical chemical methodologies able to detect potential adulterants and substituents in herbal products;
• Extraction optimization using green and novel chemistry approaches;
• Production strategies to obtain preserved phytochemical extracts;
• Technological processes applied to botanical extracts;
• Stability studies of extracts and phytochemical-rich formulations, including monitoring variations of pharmacologically active compounds during the storage and shelf life of products;
• Innovative processes to prepare extracts with robust qualitative (e.g., identification and chromatographic profile) and quantitative (e.g., content analyses) properties;
• Quality control of non-commercial and commercial herbal products;
• Other related topics related to the topic of quality assurance of herbal medicines and supplements.

Dr. Silvana Maria Zucolotto
Dr. Roberta Targino Hoskin
Dr. Geison Modesti Costa
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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• extracts
• herbal medicine
• supplements
• quality control
• markers
• cultivation
• raw material
• final product
• phenolics
• health claims
• production technology of phytochemical-rich products
• stability studies
• supply chain