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Natural Products and Their Derivatives as Potential Drugs: A Themed Issue in Honour of Prof. Gerald Blunden

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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 9043

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Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. David E. Thurston

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Guest Editor

King's College London, Institute of Pharmaceutical Science, School of Cancer & Pharmaceutical Sciences, Faculty of Life Sciences & Medicine, Franklin–Wilkins Building, London SE1 9NH, UK
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

Prof. Dr. Lucie Cahlíková

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Guest Editor

Department of Pharmaceutical Botany, Faculty of Pharmacy, Charles University, Heyrovského 1203, 500 05 Hradec Králové, Czech Republic
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

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

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)

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

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11 pages, 815 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Dynamics of Phloridzin and Related Compounds in Four Cultivars of Apple Trees during the Vegetation Period

by Jan Táborský, Josef Sus, Jaromír Lachman, Barbora Šebková, Anežka Adamcová and Dalibor Šatínský

Molecules 2021, 26(13), 3816; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/molecules26133816 - 22 Jun 2021

Cited by 8 | Viewed by 2776

Abstract

Apple trees (Malus domestica Borgh) are a rich source of dihydrochalcones, phenolic acids and flavonoids. Considering the increasing demand for these phytochemicals with health-benefitting properties, the objective of this study was to evaluate the profile of the main bioactive compounds—phloridzin, phloretin, chlorogenic acid and rutin—in apple tree bark, leaves, flower buds and twigs. The variety in the phenolic profiles of four apple tree cultivars was monitored during the vegetation period from March to September using chromatography analysis. Phloridzin, the major glycoside of interest, reached the highest values in the bark of all the tested cultivars in May (up to 91.7 ± 4.4 mg g⁻¹ of the dried weight (DW), cv. ‘Opal’). In the leaves, the highest levels of phloridzin were found in cv. ‘Opal’ in May (82.5 ± 22.0 mg g⁻¹ of DW); in twigs, the highest levels were found in cv. ‘Rozela’ in September (52.4 ± 12.1 mg g⁻¹ of DW). In the flower buds, the content of phloridzin was similar to that in the twigs. Aglycone phloretin was found only in the leaves in relatively low concentrations (max. value 2.8 ± 1.4 mg g⁻¹ of DW). The highest values of rutin were found in the leaves of all the tested cultivars (10.5 ± 2.9 mg g⁻¹ of DW, cv. ‘Opal’ in September); the concentrations in the bark and twigs were much lower. The highest content of chlorogenic acid was found in flower buds (3.3 ± 1.0 mg g⁻¹ of DW, cv. ‘Rozela’). Whole apple fruits harvested in September were rich in chlorogenic acid and phloridzin. The statistical evaluation by Scheffe’s test confirmed the significant difference of cv. ‘Rozela’ from the other tested cultivars. In conclusion, apple tree bark, twigs, and leaves were found to be important renewable resources of bioactive phenolics, especially phloridzin and rutin. The simple availability of waste plant material can therefore be used as a rich source of phenolic compounds for cosmetics, nutraceuticals, and food supplement preparation. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Natural Products and Their Derivatives as Potential Drugs: A Themed Issue in Honour of Prof. Gerald Blunden)

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11 pages, 2351 KiB

Open AccessCommunication

In Vitro Evaluation of Pro- and Antioxidant Effects of Flavonoid Tricetin in Comparison to Myricetin

by Vladimir Chobot, Franz Hadacek, Gert Bachmann, Wolfram Weckwerth and Lenka Kubicova

Molecules 2020, 25(24), 5850; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/molecules25245850 - 11 Dec 2020

Cited by 12 | Viewed by 1957

Abstract

Flavonoids are rather common plant phenolic constituents that are known for potent antioxidant effects and can be beneficial for human health. Flavonoids with a pyrogallol moiety are highly efficient reducing agents with possible pro- and antioxidant effects, depending on the reaction milieu. Therefore, the redox properties of myricetin and tricetin were investigated by differential pulse voltammetry and deoxyribose degradation assay. Tricetin proved to be a good antioxidant but only showed negligible pro-oxidant activity in one of the deoxyribose degradation assay variants. Compared to tricetin, myricetin showed pro- and antioxidant effects. The more efficient reducing properties of myricetin are probably caused by the positive mesomeric effect of the enolic 3-hydroxy group on ring C. It is evident that the antioxidant properties of structurally similar flavonoids can be converted to apparent pro-oxidant effects by relatively small structural changes, such as hydroxylation. Since reactive oxygen species (ROS) often serve as secondary messengers in pathological and physiological processes in animal and plant cells, the pro- and antioxidant properties of flavonoids are an important part of controlling mechanisms of tissue signal cascades. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Natural Products and Their Derivatives as Potential Drugs: A Themed Issue in Honour of Prof. Gerald Blunden)

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Review

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20 pages, 4185 KiB

Open AccessFeature PaperReview

Chemistry and Biological Activity of Alkaloids from the Genus Lycoris (Amaryllidaceae)

by Lucie Cahlíková, Kateřina Breiterová and Lubomír Opletal

Molecules 2020, 25(20), 4797; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/molecules25204797 - 19 Oct 2020

Cited by 27 | Viewed by 3688

Abstract

Lycoris Herbert, family Amaryllidaceae, is a small genus of about 20 species that are native to the warm temperate woodlands of eastern Asia, as in China, Korea, Japan, Taiwan, and the Himalayas. For many years, species of Lycoris have been subjected to extensive phytochemical and pharmacological investigations, resulting in either the isolation or identification of more than 110 Amaryllidaceae alkaloids belonging to different structural types. Amaryllidaceae alkaloids are frequently studied for their interesting biological properties, including antiviral, antibacterial, antitumor, antifungal, antimalarial, analgesic, cytotoxic, and cholinesterase inhibition activities. The present review aims to summarize comprehensively the research that has been reported on the phytochemistry and pharmacology of the genus Lycoris. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Natural Products and Their Derivatives as Potential Drugs: A Themed Issue in Honour of Prof. Gerald Blunden)

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