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Dear Colleagues,

The 2^nd International Symposium on Natural Products for the Future (ISNPF-2) will be held at the beautiful premises of the International Center for Chemical and Biological Sciences (ICCBS) at the University of Karachi campus, 4–6 November, 2018. The first symposium was held in Tokushima, Japan, during September, 2016. The conference is co-organized by H.E.J. Research Institute of Chemistry, International Center for Chemical and Biological Sciences (ICCBS), University of Karachi and Phytochemical Society of Asia.

The aim of the symposium is to bring together leading experts in the field of natural products sciences all around the world, and forge global partnerships for sustainable utilization of natural resources for the common benefit of humanity and rapid development of the countries in the south. The following aspects of natural product sciences will be covered:

Isolation and structural elucidation of natural products
Synthesis of natural products
Pharmacology and bioassay on natural products
Biotechnology for natural products development
Development in spectroscopic techniques relevant to the field
Rational drug designing based on natural products
Medicinal plants cultivation and conservation
Standardization and safety of herbal medicines
Clinical trials on natural product-based drug candidates
Chemistry of marine and microorganisms
Ethnobotany and IPR issues
Applicants of metabolomics and genomics techniques in natural products sciences.

More information about the conference can be found at http://iccs.edu/page-news?news-page=65

Scientists are cordially invited to contribute original research papers or reviews in all aspects of natural product sciences to this Special Issue of Molecules.

Prof. Dr. Ioannis P. Gerothanassis
Prof. Dr. Muhammad Iqbal Choudhary
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
biotechnology
spectroscopic methods
computations
drug design
ethnobotany
pharmacology
herbal medicines
metabolomics
clinical trials

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

10 pages, 2742 KiB

Open AccessFeature PaperArticle

Valorization of Carob Fruit Residues for the Preparation of Novel Bi-Functional Polyphenolic Coating for Food Packaging Applications

by Vlasios Goulas, Loukas Hadjivasileiou, Alexandra Primikyri, Christodoulos Michael, George Botsaris, Andreas G. Tzakos and Ioannis P. Gerothanassis

Molecules 2019, 24(17), 3162; https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules24173162 - 30 Aug 2019

Cited by 11 | Viewed by 2497

Abstract

The food industry has become interested in the development of innovative biomaterials with antioxidant and antimicrobial properties. Although several biopolymers have been evaluated for food packaging, the use of polyphenolic coatings has been unexplored. The purpose of this work was to develop an antioxidant and antimicrobial coating for food packaging through the polymerization of carob phenolics. At first, the polyphenolic coatings were deposited in glass surfaces polymerizing different concentrations of carob extracts (2 and 4 mg mL⁻¹) at three pH values (7, 8 and 9). Results demonstrated that the coating produced at pH 8 and at a concentration of 4 mg mL⁻¹ had the most potent antioxidant and antimicrobial potential. Then, the coating was applied directly on the salmon fillet (coating) and on the plastic container (active packaging). Peroxide and thiobarbituric acid-reactive substances (TBARS) methods were used to measure the potency to inhibit lipid oxidation in salmon fillets. Furthermore, the anti-Listeria activity of coatings was also assessed. Results showed a significant decrease of lipid oxidation during cold storage of salmon fillets for both treatments; the superiority of applied coating directly on the salmon fillets was also highlighted. Regarding the antimicrobial potency, the polyphenolic coating depleted the growth of Listeria monocytogenes after 10 days storage; while the active packaging had no effect on Listeria monocytogenes. Overall, we describe the use of low-cost carob polyphenols as precursors for the formation of bifunctional coatings with promising applications in food packaging. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Selected Papers on Natural Products for the Future)

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Graphical abstract

15 pages, 1110 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Synthesis, Characterization, and In Vitro Cancer Cell Growth Inhibition Evaluation of Novel Phosphatidylcholines with Anisic and Veratric Acids

by Marta Czarnecka, Marta Świtalska, Joanna Wietrzyk, Gabriela Maciejewska and Anna Gliszczyńska

Molecules 2018, 23(8), 2022; https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules23082022 - 13 Aug 2018

Cited by 21 | Viewed by 3812

Abstract

Phenolic acids and its methoxy derivatives are known to induce caspase-mediated apoptosis activity and exhibit cytotoxic effect towards various cancer cell lines. However, their low stability and poor bioavailability in the human organism extensively restrict the utility of this group of compounds as anticancer and health-promoting agents. In this report, a series of eight novel phosphatidylcholines (3a-b, 5a-b, 7a-b, 8a-b) containing anisic or veratric acids (1a-b) at sn-1 and/or sn-2 positions were synthesized. The phenoylated phospholipids were obtained in good yields 28–66%. The structures of novel compounds were determined by their spectroscopic data. All synthesized compounds were evaluated for their antiproliferative activity towards six cancer cell lines and normal cell line Balb/3T3. Lipophilization of phenolcarboxylic acids significantly increased their anticancer properties. The asymmetrically substituted phenoylated phosphatidylcholines exhibited higher antiproliferative effect than free acids. Lysophosphatidylcholine (7b) effectively inhibited the proliferation of human leukaemia (MV4-11), breast (MCF-7), and colon (LoVo) cancer cell lines at concentrations of 9.5–20.7 µm and was from 19 to 38-fold more active than corresponding free veratric acid. The conjugation of anisic/veratric acids with the phosphatidylcholine have proved the anticancer potential of these phenolcarboxylic acids and showed that this type of lipophilization is an effective method for the production of active biomolecules. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Selected Papers on Natural Products for the Future)

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