Natural Products and Their Derivatives as Potential Drugs: A Themed Issue in Honour of Prof. Gerald Blunden
A special issue of Molecules (ISSN 1420-3049). This special issue belongs to the section "Natural Products Chemistry".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (1 September 2021) | Viewed by 11097
Special Issue Editors
Interests: discovery of novel anticancer therapies, especially those based on natural products; antibody–drug conjugates (ADCs); anticancer agents that work through a DNA-interactive mechanism
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Interests: isolation of secondary metabolites from plants (with focus on alkaloids from Amaryllidaceae, Papaveraceae); preparation of analogues of Amaryllidaceae alkaloids; biological activity of alkaloids and their derivatives connected with potential treatment of neurodegenerative and oncological diseases
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleague,
Gerald Blunden, an Emeritus Professor of Pharmacognosy at the University of Portsmouth UK, has been an internationally renowned pioneer and authority in the fields of phytochemistry and phytomedicines with more than five decades of scientific research experience. Professor Blunden received his Bachelor and Master degrees in Pharmacy from the University of Nottingham and Ph.D. from the University of Portsmouth.
His first research publication was in 1963, and since then, he has published more than 400 scientific papers, both refereed and non-refereed, as well as being the author of various book chapters, and a joint editor of the book Seaweed Resources in Europe: Uses and Potential, published by John Wiley. Gerald supervised many research and post-doctoral students who came from all over the world, including Venezuela, Hungary, Italy, Czech Republic, Thailand, Myanmar, Nepal and China.
Professor Blunden has been awarded many distinctions, including Honorary Membership of the Hungarian Pharmaceutical Society, Honorary Professor of the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, the Faculty Gold Medal by the Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Szeged, Hungary, and the 650th Anniversary Medal of Charles’ University, Prague, Czech Republic.
Professor Blunden has been a member of or has chaired numerous national and international committees, including the American Society of Pharmacognosy, the Pharmacognosy Committee of the Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain, the British Phycological Society Council, the Manpower Committee of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain, the Council for National Academic Awards Register (with particular reference to Pharmacy), Vice Chairman of the UK Heads of Schools of Pharmacy and the Advisory Committee to the British Pharmacopoeia Commission.
Moreover, Professor Blunden has been an editorial member or referee for over 50 scientific journals and 20 research grants around the world. In particular, the international journal Natural Product Communications has especially set up a “Gerald Blunden Award” for the best research papers and review articles published in the journal in order to honour his “innumerable contributions”. Professor Blunden was a founding editor and is currently the Honorary Editor for the journal.
It is also worth mentioning that he is a great friend of both Guest Editors.
Natural products are characterised by a wide spectrum of biological activities; some of them are already used in the therapy of different diseases and some of them are in clinical studies; thus, the potential of secondary metabolites as candidates for new drugs is indispensable. This Special Issue is focused on both original research and review articles that cover the analysis, isolation and structural elucidation of all classes of natural products. Evaluation of biological activities of novel compounds, their structure–activity relationship, preparation of semisynthetic derivatives of plant secondary metabolites and molecular mechanisms of action are welcomed.
Prof. Dr. David E. Thurston
Prof. Dr. Lucie Cahlíková
Guest Editors
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Keywords
- Ethnobotany
- Phytochemistry
- Plant secondary metabolites
- Analysis
- Isolation
- Structural elucidation
- Biological activities
- Drug discovery
- Structure–activity relationships
- Analogues of secondary metabolites
- Anticancer agents
- Antibody–drug conjugates (ADCs)
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