Pharmaceutical Potential and Application Research of Natural Products

A special issue of Processes (ISSN 2227-9717). This special issue belongs to the section "Pharmaceutical Processes".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 October 2025 | Viewed by 533

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Pharmaceutical Sciences Department, Federal Rural University of Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro 23890-000, Brazil
Interests: pharmacognosy; natural products; essential oil; ethnopharmacology; pharmaceutical science; biological activity; phytochemicals
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Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Natural products have always been the focus of attention in developing new drugs that can be applied in current medicine. However, new processes for obtaining these metabolites are constantly required.

This Special Issue aims to address the development of processes for obtaining metabolites of natural origin and the development of chemical-pharmaceutical products, ensuring that the final products meet the market's needs in industries such as chemicals, food, pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, and others. This development is essential to ensure that finished products are efficient, safe, and economically viable.

Topics include, but are not limited to:

  • Optimization of processing to obtain high yields of secondary metabolites in extracts.
  • Use of techniques to assess the compatibility of natural products in pharmaceutical formulations.
  • Green processes for obtaining extracts and isolating new molecules.

Optimization of pharmaceutical processing and extraction through mathematical calculations.

Dr. Douglas Siqueira de Almeida Chaves
Prof. Dr. Gerardo Fernández Barbero
Prof. Dr. Valdir Florencio Da Veiga Junior
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 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
  • green chemistry
  • nanotechnology
  • natural and herbal remedies processing
  • purification
  • extract
  • pharmacognosy
  • Box–Behnken design
  • response surface methodology

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

13 pages, 2940 KiB  
Article
Extraction and Characterization of the Functional Properties of Starch from Miso (Mirabilis expansa [Ruíz & Pav.] Standl.): A Non-Conventional Source
by Santiago Cadena-Carrera, Vanessa Peñafiel, Esteban Fuentes, Lorena Núñez, Gabriela Vaca and Deise Tramontin
Processes 2025, 13(8), 2552; https://doi.org/10.3390/pr13082552 - 13 Aug 2025
Viewed by 164
Abstract
Mirabilis expansa root (MER) is an Andean source of starch that could be considered a “lost crop” by the scarcity of its cultivation. Consequently, few studies have reported on its functional properties. To address this gap, we herein analyze and characterize the main [...] Read more.
Mirabilis expansa root (MER) is an Andean source of starch that could be considered a “lost crop” by the scarcity of its cultivation. Consequently, few studies have reported on its functional properties. To address this gap, we herein analyze and characterize the main components of MER and Mirabilis expansa starch (MES), measuring the water-absorption index (WAI), swelling power (SP), and water solubility index (WSI). We characterized the MES morphological and structural properties by using scanning electron microscopy (SEM). We also examined the starch pasting properties using a Rapid Visco Analyzer (RVA) to determine the peak viscosity (PV), final viscosity (FV), pasting temperature (PT), breakdown (BD), and setback (SB). The thermal properties were determined by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), the crystallinity by X-ray diffraction, and the molecular structure by Fourier transform infrared spectrometry (FTIR). The main components in the MER and MES were carbohydrates and crude fiber. The MES appeared rich in amylopectin. The functional properties, the WAI, SP, and WSI, were dependent on temperature. The MES showed no morphological changes, a moderate gelatinization temperature, and C-type crystallinity. Finally, the FTIR spectrum presented the typical form for an unmodified starch. Based on these results, Mirabilis expansa may be considered a natural, non-conventional source of starch with potential applications in the food, chemical, and pharmaceutical industries. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Pharmaceutical Potential and Application Research of Natural Products)
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