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Exclusive Feature Papers in Natural Products Chemistry 2.0
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Exclusive Feature Papers in Natural Products Chemistry 2.0

A special issue of Molecules (ISSN 1420-3049). This special issue belongs to the section "Natural Products Chemistry".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 December 2023) | Viewed by 9196

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Maurizio Battino

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Guest Editor
Department of Odontostomatologic and Specialized Clinical Sciences, Sez-Biochimica, Faculty of Medicine, Università Politecnica delle Marche, Via Ranieri 65, 60100 Ancona, Italy
Interests: nutrition; periodontal diseases/periodontitis; oxidative stress; nutrition; aging; mitochondrial function and diseases; berries (strawberry, blueberry, bilberry, cranberry, etc.); olive oil (dietary fats); honey; polyphenols; flavonoids; antioxidants; apoptosis
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Francesco Cacciola

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Guest Editor
Dipartimento di Scienze Biomediche, Odontoiatriche e delle Immagini Morfologiche e Funzionali, University of Messina, Via Consolare Valeria, 98125 Messina, Italy
Interests: food chemistry; natural products; phenolic acids; flavonoids; anthocyanins; carotenoids; HPLC; mass spectrometry
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Prof. Dr. Milen I. Georgiev

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Guest Editor
Metabolomics Laboratory, Institute of Microbiology, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, 139 Ruski Blvd., 4000 Plovdiv, Bulgaria
Interests: plant secondary metabolism; natural products chemistry; leads finding; metabolomics; plant biotechnology
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Prof. Dr. Vincenzo De Feo

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Guest Editor
Department of Pharmacy, University of Salerno, Via Giovanni Paolo II, 132, 84084 Fisciano, Italy
Interests: herbs; essential oils; natural extracts; cytotoxicity; antimicrobial; biofilm
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Prof. Dr. Maria Z. Tsimidou

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Guest Editor
Laboratory of Food Chemistry and Technology, School of Chemistry, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, 54124 Thessaloniki, Greece
Interests: natural products' chemistry, bioactivity, and applications; olive tree products and byproducts; olive oil chemistry; analysis and quality; phytochemical analysis; nutrients and bioactive compounds; bioaccessibility and bioavailability; antioxidants as food preservatives; structure–antioxidant activity relationships
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Prof. Dr. Luca Rastrelli

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Guest Editor
Department of Pharmacy, University of Salerno, Via Giovanni Paolo II, 84084 Fisciano, SA, Italy
Interests: natural products; food chemistry and analytical chemistry; clinical nutrition; phytochemistry and phytotherapy; supplement and nutraceutical formulation
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleague,

It is our pleasure to announce a new Special Issue entitled “Exclusive Feature Papers in Natural Products Chemistry 2.0” an open access collection of papers (original research articles and comprehensive review papers) by the Editorial Board Members or prominent scholars invited by the Editorial Office and Guest Editors. This Special Issue aims to discuss new knowledge and cutting-edge developments in the natural product chemistry research field, in the hope of making a significant contribution to the community. We intend for this issue to be a forum for disseminating research findings as well as sharing innovative ideas in the field.

Prof. Dr. Maurizio Battino
Dr. Francesco Cacciola
Prof. Dr. Milen I. Georgiev
Prof. Dr. Vincenzo De Feo
Prof. Dr. Maria Z. Tsimidou
Prof. Dr. Luca Rastrelli
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. 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
  • natural extracts
  • plant secondary metabolism
  • phytochemical analysis
  • nutrients and bioactive compounds
  • bioaccessibility and bioavailability
  • antioxidants
  • anti-inflammatories
  • antitumor and antiviral potentials

Related Special Issue

Published Papers (6 papers)

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Research

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13 pages, 1796 KiB  
Article
Integrating High-Resolution Mass Spectral Data, Bioassays and Computational Models to Annotate Bioactives in Botanical Extracts: Case Study Analysis of C. asiatica Extract Associates Dicaffeoylquinic Acids with Protection against Amyloid-β Toxicity
by Armando Alcázar Magaña, Ashish Vaswani, Kevin S. Brown, Yuan Jiang, Md Nure Alam, Maya Caruso, Parnian Lak, Paul Cheong, Nora E. Gray, Joseph F. Quinn, Amala Soumyanath, Jan F. Stevens and Claudia S. Maier
Molecules 2024, 29(4), 838; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/molecules29040838 - 13 Feb 2024
Viewed by 1355
Abstract
Rapid screening of botanical extracts for the discovery of bioactive natural products was performed using a fractionation approach in conjunction with flow-injection high-resolution mass spectrometry for obtaining chemical fingerprints of each fraction, enabling the correlation of the relative abundance of molecular features (representing [...] Read more.
Rapid screening of botanical extracts for the discovery of bioactive natural products was performed using a fractionation approach in conjunction with flow-injection high-resolution mass spectrometry for obtaining chemical fingerprints of each fraction, enabling the correlation of the relative abundance of molecular features (representing individual phytochemicals) with the read-outs of bioassays. We applied this strategy for discovering and identifying constituents of Centella asiatica (C. asiatica) that protect against Aβ cytotoxicity in vitro. C. asiatica has been associated with improving mental health and cognitive function, with potential use in Alzheimer’s disease. Human neuroblastoma MC65 cells were exposed to subfractions of an aqueous extract of C. asiatica to evaluate the protective benefit derived from these subfractions against amyloid β-cytotoxicity. The % viability score of the cells exposed to each subfraction was used in conjunction with the intensity of the molecular features in two computational models, namely Elastic Net and selectivity ratio, to determine the relationship of the peak intensity of molecular features with % viability. Finally, the correlation of mass spectral features with MC65 protection and their abundance in different sub-fractions were visualized using GNPS molecular networking. Both computational methods unequivocally identified dicaffeoylquinic acids as providing strong protection against Aβ-toxicity in MC65 cells, in agreement with the protective effects observed for these compounds in previous preclinical model studies. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Exclusive Feature Papers in Natural Products Chemistry 2.0)
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16 pages, 1014 KiB  
Article
Phenolic Compound, Antioxidant, Antibacterial, and In Silico Studies of Extracts from the Aerial Parts of Lactuca saligna L.
by Aziz Bouymajane, Fouzia Rhazi Filali, Soumia Moujane, Yassine Oulad El Majdoub, Philipp Otzen, Souhail Channaoui, Abdelaziz Ed-Dra, Toufik Bouddine, Khalid Sellam, Ali Ait Boughrous, Natalizia Miceli, Ammar B. Altemimi and Francesco Cacciola
Molecules 2024, 29(3), 596; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/molecules29030596 - 25 Jan 2024
Viewed by 846
Abstract
Medicinal plants are considered a major source for discovering novel effective drugs. To our knowledge, no studies have reported the chemical composition and biological activities of Moroccan Lactuca saligna extracts. In this context, this study aims to characterize the polyphenolic compounds distributed in [...] Read more.
Medicinal plants are considered a major source for discovering novel effective drugs. To our knowledge, no studies have reported the chemical composition and biological activities of Moroccan Lactuca saligna extracts. In this context, this study aims to characterize the polyphenolic compounds distributed in hydro-methanolic extracts of L. saligna and evaluate their antioxidant and antibacterial activities; in addition, in silico analysis based on molecular docking and ADMET was performed to predict the antibacterial activity of the identified phenolic compounds. Our results showed the identification of 29 among 30 detected phenolic compounds with an abundance of dicaffeoyltartaric acid, luteolin 7-glucoronide, 3,5-di-O-caffeoylquinic acid, and 5-caffeoylquinic acid with 472.77, 224.30, 196.79, and 171.74 mg/kg of dried extract, respectively. Additionally, antioxidant activity assessed by DPPH scavenging activity, ferric reducing antioxidant power (FRAP) assay, and ferrous ion-chelating (FIC) assay showed interesting antioxidant activity. Moreover, the results showed remarkable antibacterial activity against Escherichia coli, Salmonella typhimurium, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Enterococcus faecalis, Staphylococcus aureus, and Listeria monocytogenes with minimum inhibitory concentrations between 1.30 ± 0.31 and 10.41 ± 0.23 mg/mL. Furthermore, in silico analysis identified three compounds, including Apigenin 7-O-glucuronide, Quercetin-3-O-glucuronide, and 3-p-Coumaroylquinic acid as potent candidates for developing new antibacterial agents with acceptable pharmacokinetic properties. Hence, L. saligna can be considered a source of phytochemical compounds with remarkable activities, while further in vitro and in vivo studies are required to explore the main biological activities of this plant. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Exclusive Feature Papers in Natural Products Chemistry 2.0)
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11 pages, 1279 KiB  
Article
Cytotoxic Natural Products Isolated from Cryptogramma crispa (L.) R. Br.
by Andrea Estefania Carpinteyro Diaz, Lars Herfindal, Heidi Lie Andersen and Torgils Fossen
Molecules 2023, 28(23), 7723; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/molecules28237723 - 23 Nov 2023
Viewed by 1314
Abstract
Parsley fern, Cryptogramma crispa, is a common fern in arctic–alpine regions, and even though this species has been known since ancient times and has been presumed to cause the poisoning of horses, its natural products have not previously been investigated. Here, we [...] Read more.
Parsley fern, Cryptogramma crispa, is a common fern in arctic–alpine regions, and even though this species has been known since ancient times and has been presumed to cause the poisoning of horses, its natural products have not previously been investigated. Here, we characterise 15 natural products isolated from the aerial parts of Cryptogramma crispa, including the previously undescribed compound 3-malonyl pteroside D. The structure determinations were based on several advanced 1D and 2D NMR spectroscopic techniques, Circular Dichroism spectroscopy and high-resolution mass spectrometry. The pteroside derivatives exhibited selective moderate cytotoxic activity against the acute myeloid leukaemia MOLM13 cell line and no cytotoxicity against the normal heart and kidney cell lines, suggesting that their potential anticancer effect should be further investigated. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Exclusive Feature Papers in Natural Products Chemistry 2.0)
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21 pages, 2061 KiB  
Article
Broccoli, Kale, and Radish Sprouts: Key Phytochemical Constituents and DPPH Free Radical Scavenging Activity
by Camille Bowen-Forbes, Edward Armstrong, Audric Moses, Richard Fahlman, Helia Koosha and Jerome Y. Yager
Molecules 2023, 28(11), 4266; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/molecules28114266 - 23 May 2023
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 2566
Abstract
Our research group previously found that broccoli sprouts possess neuroprotective effects during pregnancy. The active compound has been identified as sulforaphane (SFA), obtained from glucosinolate and glucoraphanin, which are also present in other crucifers, including kale. Sulforaphene (SFE), obtained from glucoraphenin in radish, [...] Read more.
Our research group previously found that broccoli sprouts possess neuroprotective effects during pregnancy. The active compound has been identified as sulforaphane (SFA), obtained from glucosinolate and glucoraphanin, which are also present in other crucifers, including kale. Sulforaphene (SFE), obtained from glucoraphenin in radish, also has numerous biological benefits, some of which supersede those of sulforaphane. It is likely that other components, such as phenolics, contribute to the biological activity of cruciferous vegetables. Notwithstanding their beneficial phytochemicals, crucifers are known to contain erucic acid, an antinutritional fatty acid. The aim of this research was to phytochemically examine broccoli, kale, and radish sprouts to determine good sources of SFA and SFE to inform future studies of the neuroprotective activity of cruciferous sprouts on the fetal brain, as well as product development. Three broccoli: Johnny’s Sprouting Broccoli (JSB), Gypsy F1 (GYP), and Mumm’s Sprouting Broccoli (MUM), one kale: Johnny’s Toscano Kale (JTK), and three radish cultivars: Black Spanish Round (BSR), Miyashige (MIY), and Nero Tunda (NT), were analyzed. We first quantified the glucosinolate, isothiocyanate, phenolics, and DPPH free radical scavenging activity (AOC) of one-day-old dark- and light-grown sprouts by HPLC. Radish cultivars generally had the highest glucosinolate and isothiocyanate contents, and kale had higher glucoraphanin and significantly higher sulforaphane content than the broccoli cultivars. Lighting conditions did not significantly affect the phytochemistry of the one-day-old sprouts. Based on phytochemistry and economic factors, JSB, JTK, and BSR were chosen for further sprouting for three, five, and seven days and subsequently analyzed. The three-day-old JTK and radish cultivars were identified to be the best sources of SFA and SFE, respectively, both yielding the highest levels of the respective compound while retaining high levels of phenolics and AOC and markedly lower erucic acid levels compared to one-day-old sprouts. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Exclusive Feature Papers in Natural Products Chemistry 2.0)
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Review

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24 pages, 5365 KiB  
Review
Marine-Derived Bisindoles for Potent Selective Cancer Drug Discovery and Development
by Mengwei Xu, Zhaofang Bai, Baocheng Xie, Rui Peng, Ziwei Du, Yan Liu, Guangshuai Zhang, Si Yan, Xiaohe Xiao and Shuanglin Qin
Molecules 2024, 29(5), 933; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/molecules29050933 - 21 Feb 2024
Viewed by 741
Abstract
Marine-derived bisindoles exhibit structural diversity and exert anti-cancer influence through multiple mechanisms. Comprehensive research has shown that the development success rate of drugs derived from marine natural products is four times higher than that of other natural derivatives. Currently, there are 20 marine-derived [...] Read more.
Marine-derived bisindoles exhibit structural diversity and exert anti-cancer influence through multiple mechanisms. Comprehensive research has shown that the development success rate of drugs derived from marine natural products is four times higher than that of other natural derivatives. Currently, there are 20 marine-derived drugs used in clinical practice, with 11 of them demonstrating anti-tumor effects. This article provides a thorough review of recent advancements in anti-tumor exploration involving 167 natural marine bisindole products and their derivatives. Not only has enzastaurin entered clinical practice, but there is also a successfully marketed marine-derived bisindole compound called midostaurin that is used for the treatment of acute myeloid leukemia. In summary, investigations into the biological activity and clinical progress of marine-derived bisindoles have revealed their remarkable selectivity, minimal toxicity, and efficacy against various cancer cells. Consequently, they exhibit immense potential in the field of anti-tumor drug development, especially in the field of anti-tumor drug resistance. In the future, these compounds may serve as promising leads in the discovery and development of novel cancer therapeutics. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Exclusive Feature Papers in Natural Products Chemistry 2.0)
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25 pages, 1353 KiB  
Review
Ergot Alkaloids on Cereals and Seeds: Analytical Methods, Occurrence, and Future Perspectives
by Ângela Silva, Ana Rita Soares Mateus, Sílvia Cruz Barros and Ana Sanches Silva
Molecules 2023, 28(20), 7233; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/molecules28207233 - 23 Oct 2023
Viewed by 1505
Abstract
Ergot alkaloids are secondary metabolites resulting from fungi of the genus Claviceps that have proven to be highly toxic. These mycotoxins commonly infect cereal crops such as wheat, rye, barley, and oats. Due to the increase worldwide consumption of cereal and cereal-based products, [...] Read more.
Ergot alkaloids are secondary metabolites resulting from fungi of the genus Claviceps that have proven to be highly toxic. These mycotoxins commonly infect cereal crops such as wheat, rye, barley, and oats. Due to the increase worldwide consumption of cereal and cereal-based products, the presence of ergot alkaloids in food presents a concern for human safety. For this reason, it is essential to develop several analytical methods that allow the detection of these toxic compounds. This review compiles and discusses the most relevant studies and methods used in the detection and quantification of ergot alkaloids. Moreover, the decontamination techniques are also addressed, with special attention to sorting, cleaning, frying, baking, peeling, and ammonization methods, as they are the only ones already applied to ergot alkaloids. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Exclusive Feature Papers in Natural Products Chemistry 2.0)
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