Marilena Gilca ^1,2*

• ¹ Carol Davila University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Bucharest, Romania
• ² Department of Functional Sciences I/Biochemistry, Faculty of Medicine, Carol Davila University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Bucharest, Romania, Bucharest, Romania

Despite the fact that the landscape of gender in education and the workforce regarding women 8 representation and recognition has improved lately, differences persist in various science-related fields 9 (Charlesworth and Banaji, 2019), women being more likely to experience non-standard professional 10 trajectories and negative health effects (Cabib et al., 2024). 11Realizing the importance of cultivating gender equality for sustainable development, as highlighted by 12 UNESCO, we initiated a Research Topic to provide a collaborative platform to promote the work of 13 women scientists, across all fields of Ethnopharmacology. In response to our call for submissions, 21 14 articles were submitted, of which only 11 met publication standards. 15In the following section of this editorial, some important achievements in the field will be highlighted, 16and also few topics for future research will be identified. 17One of the important health issues affecting 10% of the women of reproductive age is endometriosis 18 (Shafrir et al., 2018). Besides its negative impact on the quality of life, it also represents an economic 19 burden (Swift et al., 2024 ailments, but, surprisingly, also with the preference for harvesting rather than purchasing plants. The 57 authors also raised a concern regarding the necessity to protect this ethnomedical heritage, since there 58 is a significant reduction of used taxa when compared to the past. 59Although not statistically significant, women having a lower socio-economic status had a higher 60 cardiovascular risk than men (Ololade et al., 2024). Also women suffering of polycystic ovary 61 syndrome, a frequent endocrinopathy, have a higher chance to develop a cardiovascular disease (Dutta 62 and Maddukuri, 2024), while the leading cause of mortality in female breast cancer is represented by 63 the same type of cardiovascular pathology (Jiao et al., 2024). 64Given the importance of cardiovascular health on women wellbeing, in the present Research topic, 65 some space was granted to this area. The studies presented here highlights the diversity of research performed across the entire breadth of 75Ethnopharmacology and presents few advances in knowledge with applications to compelling women 76 related-health issues, such as endometriosis, cardiovascular and inflammatory diseases, while 77 identifying problems that requires attention, such as quality control of CHMs and preservation of 78 biocultural heritage. 79The editors expect the articles published in this Research Topic to have a significant impact on the 80 readers and believe that more women scientists will be thus encouraged to be involved in the 81 ethnopharmacological research, contributing to the development of new efficient therapeutic 82 approaches inspired by traditional medicine. 83