Medicinal Plants: Exploring Plant-Based Bioactive Compounds for Cancer and Metabolic Diseases Prevention and Intervention
A special issue of Pharmaceuticals (ISSN 1424-8247). This special issue belongs to the section "Natural Products".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 July 2025 | Viewed by 132
Special Issue Editors
Interests: medicinal plants; bioactive compounds; phytochemicals; phytochemistry; cancer; metabolism; metabolic disorders; pharmacology; inflammation; oxidative stress; cardiovascular diseases; neurodegenerative diseases
Interests: inflammatory diseases; cardiovascular diseases; neurodegenerative diseases; inflammation; medicinal plants; oxidative stress
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
We warmly welcome you to contribute to our Special Issue. This issue delves into targeting cancer and metabolic diseases with bioactive compounds derived from medicinal plants, advocating for tumor and metabolic disorders, including diabetes, dyslipidemia, obesity, MAFLD, and others, as well as prevention and intervention using these naturally derived remedies. Cancer is a complex and pervasive disease, representing a global health challenge. The disease characterizes the abnormal and uncontrolled proliferation of cells. Often, cancer invades surrounding tissues and metastasizes distant organs. Since cancer is heterogenous and adaptable, there remains a threat due to the limitations of conventional therapies, including drug resistance, severe side effects, and variability in efficacy across different cancer types and individual patterns, resulting in the need for novel therapeutic agents to more precisely target cancer cells or enhance the effectiveness of existing treatments, ultimately minimizing adverse events. On the other hand, metabolic diseases are non-communicable disorders that predispose individuals to an increased mortality rate. Metabolic diseases are also heterogeneous and depend on several factors, such as dietary patterns. In these scenarios, bioactive compounds from medicinal plants emerge as a candidate strategy. They are more cost-effective, present minimal side effects, possess many anticancer activities, and are primarily anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, antidiabetic, hepatoprotective, and antigenotoxic. In addition, they have been used since ancient times, and their effectiveness against the diseases of today’s world must be widely tested. Therefore, this Special Issue aims to publish high-quality research and review articles to elucidate bioactive compounds' anticancer and metabolic-enhancing potential from medicinal plants, advocating for translational research addressing cancer and metabolic disorders prevention and intervention. Synergistic studies between plant compounds and synthetic chemotherapeutic drugs are also welcome regarding cancer therapy. Studies on phytochemicals' antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects against cancerous cell lineages can also be submitted.
We appreciate your interest in our Special Issue and look forward to receiving your papers. Your contributions will make this project a success!
Dr. Lucas Fornari Laurindo
Dr. Sandra Barbalho
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. Pharmaceuticals 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
- cancer
- metastasis
- tumor growth
- tumor spread
- bioactive compounds
- phytochemicals
- medicinal plants
- phytochemistry
- cancer prevention
- cancer intervention
- metabolic diseases
- metabolism
- diabetes
- MAFLD
- dyslipidemia
Benefits of Publishing in a Special Issue
- Ease of navigation: Grouping papers by topic helps scholars navigate broad scope journals more efficiently.
- Greater discoverability: Special Issues support the reach and impact of scientific research. Articles in Special Issues are more discoverable and cited more frequently.
- Expansion of research network: Special Issues facilitate connections among authors, fostering scientific collaborations.
- External promotion: Articles in Special Issues are often promoted through the journal's social media, increasing their visibility.
- e-Book format: Special Issues with more than 10 articles can be published as dedicated e-books, ensuring wide and rapid dissemination.
Further information on MDPI's Special Issue polices can be found here.
