The development of a drug from a plant or fungus requires clarification of potential bioactive metabolites and analysis of their chemical and pharmacological properties The optimization of the extraction process forms the basis for many potential medicines using extracts. The investigation of these pharmacological properties requires rigorous and uniform standards for extraction and chemical analysis of extracts/preparation to be assessed. This has been made easier by advances in scientific technologies to obtain, isolate and analyze active metabolites from plants and fungi for pharmacological use. In particular, technical progress, especially in chromatography and spectroscopy, has helped to identify the metabolites of medicinal plants more precisely. With these advances, the optimisation and harmonization of these protocols is essential to ensure evaluation protocols and safety procedures remain consistent and are of a high standard.
We aim to contribute to the development of harmonized protocol and analytical procedures as the field of ethnopharmacology covers the entire spectrum from the early in vitro work to clinical trials. The focus is on the assessment of complex mixtures, i.e. primary extracts and other chemically complex preparations. It is essential that research leads to a detailed understanding of these mixtures as well as to contribute to harmonized procedures that provide validated outcomes.
Therefore, studies analyzing the suitability of these processes, and looking at parameters for harvesting, extraction, and isolation methods, are of great importance and an area of interest in this Research Topic. The stability of metabolites is another important aspect. A little known area for such analytical procedures is the assessment of potential xenobiotics and other substances which are not plant based and which may interfere with the experimental outcomes (e.g. the presence of pesticides in plant extracts).
We welcome high-quality review articles and original research papers to assess the analysis and harmonized procedures of plant extracts from the in vitro research to clinical trials. Topics related to, but not limited to, the following are welcome:
- Improved methods to understand the composition and pharmacological activities of metabolites in plant-based medicines based on chemical analysis;
- Assessment, optimization and harmonization of harvesting, extraction, and isolation processes;
- Critical appraisals of outcomes of in vitro, in vivo and clinical research in terms of false or non-reproducible results due to gaps in the description of the study material;
- Method development in chemical analysis of plant-based medicines including the harmonization of these protocols;
All the manuscripts submitted to the collection will need to fully comply with the
Four Pillars of Best Practice in Ethnopharmacology (you can freely download the full version
here. In this Research Topic, we especially draw your attention, especially to Pillar 2 and the requirements for a description of the material under study.