Pharmacological Activities of Chemically-Characterized Plant-Derived Essential Oils and Extracts
A special issue of Molecules (ISSN 1420-3049). This special issue belongs to the section "Natural Products Chemistry".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 June 2023) | Viewed by 17350
Special Issue Editor
Interests: chemical characterization of natural products; pharmacological activities of natural products and their mode-of-action; biochemistry & molecular biology
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Globally, herbal medicine relying on aromatic and medicinal plants has been widely practiced by indigenous cultures to combat a myriad of pathological conditions. Medicinal plants constitute a rich source of bioactive natural products (NPs) with diverse pharmacological activities. These include antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial, insecticidal and anticancer properties. Bioactive NPs can be extracted from different plant parts such as leaf, stem, bark, seed and root to produce extracts or essential oils (EOs), whose biological activity is dependent upon their chemical composition and abundance. Determinants impacting the chemical composition of plant extracts and EOs have been reported to include extraction protocol, surrounding environmental factors, geographical origin and nutritional conditions. Plant extracts are comprised of diverse phytochemicals such as phenolic and flavonoid constituents, whereas EOs are rich in terpenes (e.g., monoterpenes and sesquiterpenes), terpenoids as well as low molecular weight aliphatic and aromatic compounds. Despite being a cheaper and safer alternative to synthetic pharmaceutically formulated drugs, the full therapeutic potential of plant-derived NPs has not been fully exploited as yet, particularly at the level of the pharmaceutical industry.
The current Special Issue therefore invites submissions of original research articles focusing on the chemical characterization and bioactivity screening of plant extracts and EOs. Phytochemical instrumental analyses, which are directed at the identification, quantification and structural elucidation of fractionated purified single entities and/or their complex mixtures, are prerequisites for submitted author contributions.
Prof. Dr. Mourad A. M. Aboul-Soud
Guest Editor
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. Molecules 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.
Keywords
- natural products
- pharmaceutical activity
- plant extracts
- essential oils
- chemical composition
- GC-MS
- LC-MS/MS