Medicinal plants have been utilized for disease treatment and health protection all over the world for thousands of years and played an indispensable role in promoting human civilization. A Chinese poem that was recorded in ‘Shi Jing (the Book of Songs)’ and popular during the West Zhou Dynasty (1046-771BC) describes: ‘The deer each to each bleat, a field wormwood they eat…’. The wormwood in this ancient poem was an important medicinal plant widely used in China for the treatment of malaria at that time. Now we know that artemisinin extracted from the wormwood is an effective compound to kill plasmodium. It is estimated that about a quarter of the approved drugs by the Food and Drug Administration (FAD) and/or the European Medical Agency (EMA) are plant-based.

The plant-derived natural products are often synthesized and accumulated under specific growth conditions and cells or tissues, they are regulated by complex mechanisms at multi-layered levels including physiology, biochemistry, cellular biology, etc. Understanding of biosynthesis and regulation of medicinal compounds is essential for the utilization of medicinal plant properties. Thus, we are going to organize a special issue on biosynthesis and regulation of traditional medicinal compounds focussing on the following topics, and sincerely invite you to submit full-length articles, short communications, and reviews/mini reviews and perspectives.

·   Physiological processes such as photosynthesis, respiration, nutrient transport, etc. regulate the growth and development of medicinal plants.

·   Identification and biosynthesis of traditional medicinal compounds.

·   Regulatory mechanisms for the metabolism of medicinal compounds, as well as their roles in the development and function of medicinal plants.

Guest Editors

Jirong Huang, Shaghai Normal University, huangjr@shnu.edu.cn

Qing Zhao, Shanghai Chenshan Botanical Garden, zhaoqing01@sibs.ac.cn

Hexin Tan, Naval Medical University, hexintan@163.com

 Deadline

The deadline for manuscript submissions is July 31, 2024, but we can accommodate extensions on a case-by-case basis. All papers will be published as open-access articles upon acceptance.

 Submission Instructions

Please submit the full manuscript to Medicinal Plant Biology via our Online Submission System. Additionally, please choose a topic of this Special Issue when submitting and mention it in your cover letter. For further inquiries, please contact Guest Editors:

Jirong Huang (huangjr@shnu.edu.cn)

Qing Zhao (zhaoqing01@sibs.ac.cn)

Hexin Tan (hexintan@163.com)