**Plant Extracts: Chemical Composition, Bioactivity and Potential Applications**

Editors

**Francisca Rodrigues Cristina Delerue-Matos**

MDPI • Basel • Beijing • Wuhan • Barcelona • Belgrade • Manchester • Tokyo • Cluj • Tianjin

*Editors* Francisca Rodrigues LAQV - ISEP REQUIMTE Porto Portugal

Cristina Delerue-Matos LAQV - ISEP REQUIMTE Porto Portugal

*Editorial Office* MDPI St. Alban-Anlage 66 4052 Basel, Switzerland

This is a reprint of articles from the Special Issue published online in the open access journal *Foods* (ISSN 2304-8158) (available at: www.mdpi.com/journal/foods/special issues/plant bioactivity applications).

For citation purposes, cite each article independently as indicated on the article page online and as indicated below:

LastName, A.A.; LastName, B.B.; LastName, C.C. Article Title. *Journal Name* **Year**, *Volume Number*, Page Range.

**ISBN 978-3-0365-2877-9 (Hbk) ISBN 978-3-0365-2876-2 (PDF)**

© 2022 by the authors. Articles in this book are Open Access and distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license, which allows users to download, copy and build upon published articles, as long as the author and publisher are properly credited, which ensures maximum dissemination and a wider impact of our publications.

The book as a whole is distributed by MDPI under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND.

### **Contents**



## **Preface to "Plant Extracts: Chemical Composition, Bioactivity and Potential Applications"**

Society has recently demonstrated a high level of awareness and responsibility concerning environmental issues. The interest in bioactive compounds extracted from natural sources has increased due to their potential application as active ingredients in several industries, particularly the cosmetic, food, and pharmaceutical industries. Plants are rich sources of phenolic compounds that have been widely studied due to their health-promoting properties, namely antioxidant, anti-carcinogenic, and anti-inflammatory activities, among others. Extraction is usually the limiting analytical step in the yield of bioactive compounds. From a green point of view, many extraction techniques have been employed as potential candidates to replace conventional methods, such as ultrasound-assisted extraction (UAE), pressurized liquid extraction (PLE), microwave-assisted extraction (MAE), supercritical fluid extraction (SFE), pulsed electric field extraction, and enzyme-assisted extraction. In this Special Issue, we focus our attention on the chemical characterization of plant extracts and their bioactive composition, focusing also on in-vitro cell assays and molecular tools. The issue comprises original research articles, as well as a review, on topics such as phenolic profile, radical scavenging capacity, in vitro cell assays, comet assay, and antimicrobial capacity. We close this Special Issue with a review paper that focuses on the pharmacological activities of quercetin, one of the principal polyphenols. With this, we aim to provide a contemporary overview of the advantages of bioactive compounds extracted from plants.

### **Francisca Rodrigues, Cristina Delerue-Matos**

*Editors*

*Article*
