Noncommunicable diseases (NCDs), such as cardiovascular diseases, cancer, chronic respiratory diseases, diabetes, and chronic kidney diseases, are the leading cause of mortality, which are responsible for over 70% of deaths worldwide. Most of NCDs are complex diseases that cannot be effectively treated with single-target drugs, while multiple therapeutic agents are thought to be more effective. Herbal medicines, featured as multiple bioactive components and multiple targets, are considered an attractive way for the prevention and management of NCDs.
Herbal medicines, consisting of one or more medicinal plants, usually exhibit multiple pharmacological effects when treating NCDs. Identifying the bioactive ingredients of herbal medicines or medicinal plants, and elucidating their mechanisms of action will provide a basis for their rational clinical use and quality control, which also will promote the development of new drugs derived from medicinal plants.
With this Research Topic, we welcome original research articles and reviews discussing the multiple roles of medicinal plants or natural products in the treatment of NCDs (including cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, and chronic kidney diseases, as well as the complications). Novel methods for screening or exploring of the polypharmacology of natural products will be appreciated. We also welcome the applications of the multiple pharmacological effects in medicinal plants.
The following subtopics are of interest, including but not limited to:
• Multiple roles of herbal medicines, medicinal plants, or ingredients in the treatment or prevention of one disease.
• Synergistic effects of medicinal plants or ingredients in the treatment of a disease.
• Identification of new natural products with multiple pharmacological effects and molecular targets in the treatment of cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, or chronic kidney diseases.
• New technologies or strategies for the discovery of bioactive ingredients with multiple pharmacological effects in medicinal plants.
• Application of the multiple pharmacological effects in medicinal plants, i.e., quality control of herbal medicines and discovery of new herbal medicines.
• The potential pharmacological and therapeutic limitations of the multi-target effects.
All the manuscripts submitted to this project will be peer-reviewed and need to fully comply with the Four Pillars of Best Practice in Ethnopharmacology
Four Pillars of Best Practice in Ethnopharmacology (you can freely download the full version
here). Importantly, please ascertain that the ethnopharmacological context is clearly described (pillar 3d) and that the material investigated is characterized in detail (
pillars 2 a and b).