Bioprospecting the Efficacy and Safety of Natural Products from Plants

Dear Colleagues,

Plants have been widely studied for their metabolic richness and ability to produce bioactive substances of health interest. These substances are from complex biochemical machinery and are evaluated for their ability to alter pathways that may be related to the cell survival of pathogens (antimicrobials and antivirals), pathways associated with the sequestration of free radicals (antioxidants), or cell toxicity (antitumors), among others. In general, phytotherapy is correlated with a low cytotoxic profile for normal cells, in addition to the fact that many extracts contain metabolites involved in cell detoxification.

Secondary metabolites derived from plants have an extensive history in traditional and modern societies. The discovery of new chemotherapeutic agents from natural products has stimulated the search for new bioactives that can modulate pathways related to the progression of various acute and chronic diseases. One of the most important plant explorations was the isolation of the alkaloids vinblastine and vincristine from Catharanthus roseus (L.) G. Don (Apocynaceae), popularly known as vinca. This plant was initially used to treat diabetes mellitus, and currently, the isolated alkaloids are widely used commercially in therapy against various types of tumors.

As a result, research into different plants, which are powerful sources of bioactive secondary metabolites, has taken up a lot of space in the search for new drugs, especially against cancer, which are as effective as existing chemotherapy drugs and less aggressive toward normal cells.

In this Special Issue, we invite scientists who are dedicated to the bioprospecting of natural products derived from plants. The topics of interest are i) the isolation, identification, and semi-synthesis of bioactive phytochemicals; ii) pre-clinical (in vitro and in vivo) and clinical evaluation of efficacy and safety for pharmacological and toxicological validation of phytocomplexes; iii) studies of unit operations and analytical standardization of plant extracts; and iv) the development of release systems for phytochemicals of medical, biomedical, and veterinary interest. Scientific contributions on subjects relevant to phytotherapy, e.g., metabolomics, experimental pathology, the effect of seasonality on bioactivities, and pharmacometrics are very welcome.

Full original and review articles will be considered for publication. Contributions must contain information on the botanical identification of the species under study, including the deposit of voucher specimens in herbaria, and the phytochemical characterization of plant extracts. Only systematic reviews prepared following the recommendations of the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA 2020- https://www.bmj.com/content/372/bmj.n71) will be considered.

Prof. Dr. Rosy Iara Maciel de Azambuja Ribeiro
Prof. Dr. Renê Oliveira Do Couto
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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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. Plants is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly 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.

• in vitro techniques
• phytochemicals
• antioxidants
• medicinal plant
• toxic plants
• drug delivery systems
• animal disease models
• drug screening
• pharmacognosy
• plant extracts