Natural-Product-Based Drug Discovery and Development

Dear Colleagues,

Medicinal plants play a vital role not only in traditional medicine but also modern drug discovery and development. Plant-derived natural products and their semisynthetic derivatives have gained increasing attention in recent years as potential therapeutic agents for managing lifestyle-related diseases, as well as for their anti-cancer and anti-infective properties. One of their significant advantages over synthetic molecules lies in their vast natural abundance and structural diversity. Various strategies, such as random screening, traditional usage-based screening, chemotaxonomy, in silico studies, reverse pharmacological approaches, high-throughput screening, etc., are commonly employed for lead discovery in natural products. However, transforming natural products from plants into therapeutic agents for patients presents numerous challenges, including the proper identification of the biological source, ensuring a sustainable supply, cultivation, quality control, and the synthesis of structurally complex molecules on a large scale. Thus, this Special Issue aims to cover both basic and clinical research related to natural-product-based drug discovery and development.

We are pleased to invite you to submit original research articles and reviews related to the aim of this Special Issue, “Natural-Product-Based Drug Discovery and Development”. Research areas of interest include (but are not limited to) the following:

• Traditional medicines, medicinal plants, and ethnopharmacology;
• Bioprospecting of medicinal plants;
• Extraction, isolation, and identification of natural products;
• Basic research related to the pharmacological activity analysis;
• Semi-synthesis of natural product derivatives and their activities;
• Drug delivery strategies related to natural products;
• Preclinical and clinical research related to natural products;
• In vitro and in vivo screening of natural product extracts;
• Modern drug discovery technologies;
• Biotechnological approaches related to natural products;
• Innovations and future trends related to natural products

Dr. Hari Prasad Devkota
Dr. Ajit Prakash
Dr. Keshav Raj Paudel
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. Applied Sciences 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 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.

• natural products
• phytochemicals
• drug discovery
• drug delivery
• pharmacology
• semi-synthesis
• bioactivity

• Plant-Based Bioactive Natural Products: Insights into Molecular Mechanisms of Action in Applied Sciences (10 articles)