Analysis and Biological Evaluation of Bioactive Compounds from Natural Sources

Dear Colleagues,

Since ancient time, extracts from plants or other organisms have been used as remedies for the treatment of different types of diseases, and today, it is well known that their biological activities are imputable to active compounds present in their chemical composition. For this reason, tremendous effort has been invested to delineate the chemical composition profile of these natural remedies, but only in recent times, their active ingredients have been isolated and identified with the final goal to verify their chemotherapeutic potential.

From this kind of research, the close relationship between the chemical composition, in terms of secondary metabolites, and the ability to play a role in health has emerged quite clearly; therefore, there are numerous multidisciplinary studies aimed at the chemical and biological evaluation of complex natural matrices.

In this context, there is renewed attention towards bioactive natural products due to their high chemodiversity, which cannot be guaranteed with synthetic methods.

Today, it is also known that many of these natural molecules, which have conferred an 'evolutionary advantage' to the species of origin, have been used as lead compounds for the development of drugs used for medical purposes, for example, aspirin is a semi-synthetic drug, commonly used, obtained as an acetylated analogue of salicin, isolated from Salix alba.

On the other hand, noteworthily, the scientific attention is focused on the secondary metabolites, for example, the well-known polyphenols, with particular interest in those obtained from edible plants, to verify their role on general health and in the maintenance of good health of the global population.

Due to the strong interest in the current topic, in this Special Issue, we want to collect original multidisciplinary research reports and updated literature reviews on several fields related to the extraction, the secondary metabolic profile characterization, the bioactivity, and mechanisms of action of bioactive compounds from natural sources.

Dr. Rosanna Avola
Dr. Luana Pulvirenti
Guest Editors

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• natural products
• natural product chemistry
• polyphenols
• vegetable extract profiling
• herbal medicine
• phytochemicals
• biological applications of natural products
• mechanism of action