Bioactive Natural Compounds from Marine and Plant Origins: Structure, Reactivity, and Biological Function

Bioactive natural compounds represent a highly diverse and structurally complex class of chemical compounds derived from plants, microorganisms, and other biological systems. Their structural diversity and stereochemical complexity make them particularly attractive targets in modern chemistry, especially for understanding how molecular structure and reactivity influence physicochemical properties and biological function. Advances in organic chemistry, analytical chemistry, and chemical biology have significantly expanded the possibilities for high-precision isolation, characterization, and modification of natural compounds, enabling deeper insight into structure-property and structure-activity relationships. State-of-the-art chromatographic and spectroscopic techniques, combined with computational methods, enable detailed molecular-level studies of structure, reactivity, and chemical transformations in complex biological matrices. At the same time, increasing interest in sustainable, bio-derived chemical systems has positioned natural compounds at the interface of chemistry, biotechnology, and biology. Understanding how precise molecular structures translate into physicochemical properties and biological function remains a central challenge.The rapid expansion of high-dimensional analytical datasets highlights the need for chemically grounded frameworks that connect molecular structure with functional relevance. Despite significant advances in analytical and synthetic methodologies, establishing reliable relationships between molecular structure, chemical reactivity, and biological function is still limited by the complexity and variability of natural systems. Traditional approaches focused on individual compounds are often insufficient to capture the full chemical diversity of natural mixtures or to effectively link chemical profiles with functional relevance. Addressing this challenge requires integrated chemical approaches that combine structural analysis, mechanistic studies, and assessment of molecular interactions, linking composition, reactivity, and function.Recent progress in metabolomics and advanced analytical approaches for the study of complex natural systems provides new opportunities to systematically explore such systems and strengthen the interpretation of structure-function relationship. The goal of this Research Topic is to provide a platform for high-quality scientific publications that advance our understanding of bioactive natural compounds from a molecular perspective, with a particular emphasis on chemical fundamentals and structure-function relationships.This Research Topic welcomes original research articles, reviews, and mini-reviews addressing the chemical aspects of bioactive natural compounds. Topics of interest include:• Structural elucidation and characterization of bioactive natural compounds• Advanced analytical and spectroscopic methods• Structure-activity relationships• Chemical reactivity and transformation mechanisms• Isolation and modification, including semi-synthesis and total synthesis• Molecular interactions with biological targets• Metabolomics and approaches for the analysis of complex natural systems• Computational chemistry, molecular modeling, and chemoinformatics Submitted manuscripts should contain a clear and significant chemical component, focus on molecular-level analysis of structure, reactivity, or function, and include mechanistic interpretation where appropriate. Studies should demonstrate methodological or conceptual advances and maintain chemistry as the primary scientific framework. Interdisciplinary contributions are welcome, provided the chemical component is clearly dominant. Topic editors: Agnieszka Szopa, Sabine Montaut, Ivica Blažević, Eliza Blicharska Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/81431/bioactive-natural-compounds-from-marine-and-plant-origins-structure-reactivity-and-biological-function