Plant Toxins and Phytotoxins: Toxicology, Pharmacology, Identification, and Application

Dear Colleagues,

Several plant species are well-known for their toxicity, especially those with deadly toxicity to humans. Besides these highly toxic plant species, many more exhibit weak adverse effects or are beneficial for human health. Likely more relevant are undesirable effects due to poor phytomedicine, chronic exposure to foodstuffs, or allergenic reactions to plant-based personal care products.

Toxic plant secondary metabolites (PSMs), phytotoxins, are responsible for the toxicity of plants. PSMs have various functions, including physiological actions, attraction of insects, stimulation of symbioses, and protection against abiotic (e.g., temperature) and biotic stresses (e.g., herbivores or pathogens). Phytotoxins, specifically, are those PSMs working as defense agents by inducing adverse effects on other organisms' growth, development, or survival. They can be toxic to humans, animals, insects, microbes, fungi, or other plants. Many PSMs are essential for perfumery, cuisine, pest management (especially biopesticides), and medicine.

This Special Issue concerns the modes of action of plant toxins towards their target organisms. Articles or reviews reporting on phytotoxins acting as allergenic or hallucinogenic, exhibiting endocrine-disrupting effects, affecting the nervous system, or interfering with proteins, DNA, or the cell membrane are welcome. Environmental issues due to the diffusion of phytotoxins in surface water and health issues due to phytotoxins in food and drinking water are similarly essential themes for our Special Issue. Nevertheless, the chemical identification of toxic compounds facilitates their structure elucidation and investigation of their functions.

Dr. Zbigniew Adamski 
Prof. Dr. Laura Scrano
Dr. Filomena Lelario 
Prof. Dr. Sabino Aurelio Bufo
Guest Editors

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