Preventing and Treating Liver Diseases: Medicinal and Food Plants, their metabolites as potential options, Volume II

Following the success of the first volume of this Research Topic, which resulted in 17 published articles, this second edition continues to explore safe and effective hepatoprotective natural products from medicinal and food plants, with expanded scope on emerging therapeutic targets, novel discovery methods, and translational pharmacological insights.Liver diseases represent a major and growing global health burden, encompassing a wide spectrum of conditions such as metabolic-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD), alcoholic liver disease, viral hepatitis, fibrosis, cirrhosis, and hepatocellular carcinoma. The increasing incidence of these disorders, including among younger populations, highlights the urgent need for effective, safe, and accessible therapeutic strategies. Currently available pharmacological treatments are often limited by suboptimal efficacy, adverse effects, high costs, and recurrence rates.In this context, medicinal and food plants have emerged as valuable sources of bioactive metabolites with potential hepatoprotective properties. These natural products, including polyphenols, flavonoids, alkaloids, terpenoids, and other secondary metabolites, have been increasingly investigated for their roles in modulating oxidative stress, inflammation, apoptosis, fibrosis, and metabolic dysregulation. New hepatoprotective natural products discovered from medicinal and food plants offer the advantages of multi-pathways, multi-targets, and safety, which are focused on by medical researchers. However, despite promising preclinical findings, there remains a critical need for robust experimental validation, mechanistic insights, safety evaluation, and translational evidence. Therefore, discovering safe and effective new hepatoprotective drugs from medicinal and food plants used anywhere in the world is a research direction with important value.This Research Topic aims to provide a comprehensive and critical platform to advance the understanding of hepatoprotective agents derived from medicinal and food plants. We particularly encourage studies that integrate phytochemical characterization with pharmacological, toxicological, and mechanistic approaches.Key objectives of this Research Topic include:The identification and characterization of bioactive compounds from medicinal and food plants with hepatoprotective potential, supported by rigorous analytical and phytochemical methodologies.The investigation of molecular targets and signaling pathways involved in liver diseases, including but not limited to oxidative stress, inflammation, lipid metabolism, fibrosis, apoptosis, and the gut–liver axis.The elucidation of pharmacological mechanisms of action of hepatoprotective natural products on the diverse forms of liver diseases, using in vitro, in vivo, and, when applicable, clinical or translational models.The evaluation of safety, toxicity, pharmacokinetics, and pharmacodynamics of plant-derived compounds and extracts.The development and application of innovative methodologies for natural product discovery, including metabolomics, molecular docking, systems pharmacology, and advanced extraction and formulation technologies.The Research Topic aims to gather original research, review, systematic review, mini review, perspective, case report, abstract, and data report on the trend and recent advances in promising hepatoprotective natural products, pharmacological targets, and molecular mechanisms from medicinal and food plants for treating liver diseases. Potential topics include but are not limited to the following:• Discovery and chemical characterization of novel hepatoprotective natural products from medicinal and food plants• Identification and validation of new hepatoprotective targets from medicinal and food plants• Elucidation of molecular mechanisms underlying hepatoprotective effects• Exploration of the role, efficacy, and safety of the potential hepatoprotective targets• Novel methods and innovative technologies for the discovery of hepatoprotective natural products• Structure–activity relationships and bioactivity-guided fractionation of hepatoprotective natural products• Biosynthesis and metabolism of hepatoprotective natural products• Pharmacological and toxicological studies on hepatoprotective natural products, including in vitro and in vivo bioactivity and metabolism studies, pharmacokinetic, and pharmacodynamics studies• Role of natural compounds in liver inflammation, oxidative stress, fibrosis, and metabolic disorders (including the gut–liver axis)• Translational and clinical perspectives on plant-derived hepatoprotective agentsThis Research Topic seeks to foster interdisciplinary contributions that bridge natural product chemistry and pharmacology, ultimately contributing to the development of safer and more effective strategies for the prevention and treatment of liver diseases.Please note:All contributions to this Research Topic must adhere to the Four Pillars of Best Practice in Ethnopharmacology and the ConPhyMP statement (Front. Pharmacol., 13:953205). Manuscripts must include detailed descriptions of biological material, extraction methods, and processing procedures; submissions lacking these details will be desk-rejected. The full best-practice guidance is available at: https://ga-online.org/best-practice.Authors are encouraged to self-assess their manuscripts using the ConPhyMP tool before submission.The following types of submissions fall outside the scope of this Research Topic:• In silico network pharmacology studies of complex mixtures that lack experimental or functional validation (note: AI/machine learning approaches integrated with in vitro, in vivo, or clinical data are welcome)• Studies reporting only chemical antioxidant assays (e.g., DPPH, ABTS) without pharmacological target identification or mechanistic follow-up relevant to liver pathology• Small molecules exhibiting in silico or in vitro effects but without specific pharmacological targets relevant to liver disease• Bibliometric or scientometric analysesIn particular, for network analysis studies, potential authors will have to comply with the following guidelines:• Network analysis must be conducted in combination with experimental pharmacological work or be based on a sound body of experimental work. • Network analysis of mixtures (e.g., extracts of a single botanical drug or a polyherbal preparation) is only considered if a specific experimental mechanism of action can be proposed for compounds with a relevant in vitro or in vivo activity. • Network analysis studies must critically assess the evidence to evaluate the potential pharmacological effects of a preparation/herbal (medical) product and the limitations of the evidence. • The network must be represented in such a way that the underlying mechanism can be understood, including a suitable visualization of the network and the individual data points. • The identification of the compounds must be sound. This information may be derived preferably from benchwork or else from the existing literature. It is essential that the quantities of the compounds in the preparation or plant are stated and are high enough to be of pharmacological relevance. • The bioavailability of the compounds must be assessed. • Ubiquitous or very widely known compounds are highly unlikely to be “active,” especially in in vitro assays. Therefore, in these cases, evidence for therapeutic or preventive benefits and mechanisms of action is essential. • The major target found by transcriptomics or proteomics needs to be validated by other experimental techniques. Topic editors: Qinge Ma, Gildardo Rivera, Jefferson Romáryo Duarte da Luz Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/80831/preventing-and-treating-liver-diseases-medicinal-and-food-plants-their-metabolites-as-potential-options-volume-ii