Secondary Metabolites from Plant Sources

Dear Colleagues,

Research on plant secondary metabolites has significantly increased over the last century. These molecules represent an important source of active pharmaceuticals, flavors, and nutraceuticals. Various secondary metabolites are used as bioactive components of drugs and may significantly and beneficially impact animal and human health. Secondary metabolites from plant sources have been an abundant area of chemical investigation for many years, driving the development of both analytical chemistry and new synthetic reactions and methodologies. Interestingly, along with their effect on animal and human health, secondary metabolites could have a hand in the development of gene technology that permits modulation of certain components’ content. This multi-disciplinary field of research involves chemists, biochemists, and plant scientists, all of whom have contributed to our current understanding of these materials. This Special Issue of Metabolites, “Secondary Metabolites from Plant Sources,” is dedicated to studies exploring the latest discoveries and innovations in this field.

We are calling for manuscripts that address the following topics:

1) Chemistry of plant secondary metabolites;

2)  Various classes of secondary metabolites as the key drivers of the pharmacological actions of plants and their important uses;

3) Nature-based synthetic molecules using secondary metabolites and their activities;

4) Plant secondary metabolites with nutraceutical, cosmetic, agro, flavors, pharmaceutical, food additives, and other industrial values;

5) Biotechnological approaches to enhancing the production of plant secondary metabolites (induced mutation, salinity stress, endophytes impact, plant tissue culture approaches, hydroponics system of cultivation, etc.);

6) Advances and technical obstacles in the production of secondary metabolites from medicinal plants;

7) Microbial-mediated enhancement of bioactive secondary metabolites of plants;

8) Marine plants with unique and diverse secondary metabolites: chemistry and application of seagrasses and algae, the main types of marine plants;

9) Molecular mechanisms and physiological for the production of secondary metabolites in plants;

10) Application of bioinformatics for production of plant secondary metabolites;

11) Transcriptomics approaches for large-scale identification of genes involved in plant secondary metabolism;

12) Plant secondary metabolite content and metabolites’ impact on animal performance, health and welfare;

13) Approaches to enhancing agricultural sustainability by growing crops and forages with a diverse range of plant secondary metabolites.

Dr. Howaida I. Abd-Alla
Dr. Mohamed Osman Radwan
Dr. Hari Prasad Devkota
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. Metabolites is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly 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.