Editorial

In 2008 Planta Medica has published 15 issues; these included one complete abstract volume of the 7^th Joint Meeting of AFERP, ASP, GA, PSE and SIF [1], and two Special Issues, i.e. one with Selected Contributions from the 55^th Annual Congress of the Society for Medicinal Plant Research in Graz (2007) [2], and a Special Issue on Natural Products and Cancer Chemoprevention [3]. In addition, issue 3 contained the abstracts of the 7^th Annual Oxford International Conference on the Science of Botanicals and the American Society of Pharmacognosy 4^th Interim Meeting at the University of Mississippi, Oxford, MS, USA. In 2009 Planta Medica will continue its policy of publishing high quality reviews and research papers in a series of regular issues, and again the publication of two special issues on topics of general interest is scheduled.

Nevertheless some changes will be noticed in 2009. To keep in line with the name change decided by the Society of Medicinal Plant Research, the society of which Planta Medica is the official organ, the subtitle of the journal will be updated to Journal of Medicinal Plant and Natural Product Research. Since the number of contributions in the journal sections Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, and Physiology and Biotechnology, always has been rather low, it was decided to combine these into one new section Biochemistry, Molecular Biology and Biotechnology, without narrowing the scope of the journal. On the contrary, the Editorial Board has decided to introduce a new journal section, Biological Screening. From now on, papers dealing with the biological screening of a meaningful number of extracts of plants or other organisms can be considered for publication in Planta Medica. Identification of the material should properly be documented, and preparation of the extracts should clearly be described. Biological activities should be reported by listing IC₅₀ values, or a dose-response relationship should be shown by using at least two test concentrations. Positive controls (reference compounds) should be included, in the same way as requested for other pharmacological or biological investigations. Results should be presented in a concise format, and the discussion should be kept to a minimum.

In addition, a new policy with regard to Rapid Communications will be followed. Rapid Communications are intended for the publication of exceptionally significant new and original results, such as unusual structures, bioactivities and innovative analytical techniques that deserve rapid publication, in the format of an Original Paper or a Letter. If authors want their submission to be considered as a Rapid Communication, they should provide a justification statement for this with their manuscript. However, also regular submissions can be selected by the Editors for rapid communication after the review process. In this way Planta Medica will be ready for 2009.

Luc Pieters

Editor-in-Chief

References

• 1 Skaltsounis A. 7^th Joint Meeting of AFERP, ASP, GA, PSE and SIF.  Planta Med. 2008;  74 895
• 2 Hamburger M. Editorial.  Planta Med. 2008;  74 593
• 3 Gescher A J, Gerhäuser C. Cancer Chemopreventive Agents in Plants – A Continuing Challenge.  Planta Med. 2008;  74 1523-25