Elemental and Molecular Composition of Food Supplements of Plant Origin

Dear Colleagues,

The journal Plants will be publishing a Special Issue “Elemental and Molecular Composition of Food Supplements of Plant Origin” that will focus on quality assessment of over-the-counter supplements of plant origin. According to the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), food supplements are concentrated sources of nutrients (i.e., mineral and vitamins) and biomolecules with either nutritional or physiological effects that are marketed in “dose” form (e.g., pills, tablets, capsules, liquids in measured doses). These are usually intended to correct nutritional deficiencies but not to treat or prevent diseases in humans nor to modify physiological functions.

Nevertheless, some of the food supplements of plant origin have a long tradition in different cultures worldwide, with human health benefits beyond their nutritional value. For instance, regarding the pharmacological approach to these natural products, they can be seen as reservoirs of phytochemicals that may be used for drug development.

Throughout the world, these supplements are sold freely without risk assessment for public health, mainly due to lax legislation that ignores the lack of quality control and scarcity of information available to consumers, who base their choices merely on the presence of the label “natural products”.

In this context, study of the elemental and molecular composition of these food supplements will form the basis of a body of knowledge that can contribute to more efficient regulation as well as other fundamental research aspects. Thus, this Special Issue will cover a wide range of areas concerning the quantification and qualification of the constituents of food supplements from biological and instrumental points of view.

Dr. Mauro Guerra
Prof. Dr. Fernando Henrique Reboredo
Dr. Roberta Leitão
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. Plants 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.

• plants
• food supplements
• elemental composition
• phytochemicals
• risk assessment