Innovations in Plant-Based Antibiotic and Antiviral Agents

A special issue of Antibiotics (ISSN 2079-6382). This special issue belongs to the section "Plant-Derived Antibiotics".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 20 January 2025 | Viewed by 209

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Department of Pharmacy, University of Naples Federico II, Via Montesano 49, 80131 Napoli, Italy
Interests: plant secondary metabolites; antimicrobial effects of phytochemical components; biochemistry and biotechnology; plant-derived antibiotics; plant responses to stresses phytoremediation
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Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Antibiotics and antivirals, which can be either naturally occurring or artificially created organic compounds, are drugs that can act against bacteria, fungi and viruses. However, in recent years, a severe threat to human health has arisen worldwide as many antibiotics and antivirals have become inactive due to resistance phenomena, and no new treatments have been developed. A natural alternative to synthetic antibiotics and antivirals involves the use of plants, plant extracts, or secondary metabolites isolated from the latter, with antimicrobial action. Alkaloids, terpenoids, steroids, tannins, flavonoids, coumarins, essential oils, and lectins are some examples of phytochemicals able to act against parasites. They can modulate antibiotic and antiviral susceptibility, attenuate bacterial virulence, and inhibit the microbial synthesis of the cell wall, physiology, and biofilm. Phytochemicals have the advantage of being more accepted by consumers who prefer using natural products and that they do not generate microbial resistance phenomena. Thus, antimicrobials and antivirals derived from plants, whether used independently or in conjunction with antibiotics, can contribute to addressing the current issue of antibiotic resistance. In particular, the following topics are of interest:

  • Isolation and identification of antimicrobial secondary metabolites from plants;
  • Isolation and identification of antiviral secondary metabolites from plants;
  • Validation of analytical methods used to detect phytochemicals;
  • Pharmacognosy studies (in vitro and in vivo assays);
  • Pharmacology studies (in vitro and in vivo assays);
  • Toxicity studies (in vitro and in vivo assays);
  • Antimicrobial activities;
  • Antiviral activities.

Dr. Margherita-Gabriella De Biasi
Dr. Irene Dini
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. Antibiotics is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly 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 2900 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

  • secondary metabolites
  • phytochemicals
  • botanicals
  • analytical methods
  • toxicity

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Published Papers

This special issue is now open for submission.
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