The worldwide interest in the use of medicinal plants has been growing, and its beneficial effects being rediscovered for the development of new drugs. Based on their vast ethnopharmacological applications, which inspired current research in drug discovery, natural products can provide new and important leads against various pharmacological targets. This work pioneers an extensive and an updated literature review on the current state of research on Rosmarinus officinalis L., elucidating which compounds and biological activities are the most relevant. Therefore, a search was made in the databases PubMed, ScienceDirect and Web of Science with the terms ‘rosemary’, ‘Rosmarinus officinalis’, ‘rosmarinic acid’ ‘carnosol’ and ‘carnosic acid’, which included 286 articles published since 1990 about rosemary's pharmacological activities and their isolated compounds. According to these references, there has been an increasing interest in the therapeutic properties of this plant, regarding carnosic acid, carnosol, r... Lay abstract The worldwide interest in the use of medicinal plants has been growing, and their beneficial effects being rediscovered for the development of new drugs. Actually, current research in drug discovery has been inspired on the vast ethnopharmacological applications of natural products, providing new and important leads against various pharmacological targets. In this work, an updated literature review is presented to clarify the current state of research on Rosmarinus officinalis L., elucidating its constituents and their most relevant biological activities. Therefore, this work provides an updated review upon the most reported medicinal properties, namely, antitumoral, anti-inflammatory, analgesic, neurodegenerative, endocrinal, anti-infective and antioxidant.

Introduction: Bile acids are biological surfactants and signaling molecules with important paracrine and endocrine functions. The enterohepatic organotropism of bile acids turns these facial amphiphiles into attractive drug delivery systems for selective drug targeting to the liver or to enhance drug bioavailability by improving intestinal absorption and metabolic stability. Areas covered: Bile acid-based amphiphiles, in the form of mixed micelles, bilosomes, drug conjugates and hybrid lipid-polymer nanoparticles are critically discussed as delivery systems for anticancer drugs, antimicrobial agents and therapeutic peptides/proteins, including vaccines. Therapeutic applications of bile acid derivatives as cytotoxic and neuroprotective agents are also addressed. Expert opinion: Bile acids play an important role in modulating cancer therapy and novel derivatives with cytotoxic activity not restricted to the gastrointestinal tract can be expected. Selective toxicity targeting the bacterial membrane remains an attractive area of research for further development of bile acid-based bactericidal agents. On the other hand, the neuroprotective properties of some bile acids offer therapeutic potential in neurodegenerative disorders. Bile acid-based nanoparticles are also a growing research area due to the unique characteristics and tunable properties of these nanosystems. Therefore, multifaceted pharmaceutical and biomedical applications of bile salts are to be expected in the near future.

Medicinal plants are a good source of novel therapeutic drugs, due to the phytochemicals present. Artemia, commonly known as brine shrimp, is a tiny halophilic invertebrate belonging to class Crustacean, which plays an important role in saline aquatic and marine eco-systems. Besides its usage in aquaculture, it is also highly valued for its application in toxicity detection and it is used in areas such as Ecology, Physiology, Ecotoxicology, Aquaculture and Genetics. Furthermore, Artemia based lethality assay (brine shrimp lethality assay, BSLA) is rapid, convenient and low cost. Presently, brine shrimp lethality assays are enormously employed in research and applied toxicology. It has been used in the study of natural products as a preliminary toxicity assay to screen a large number of extracts and compounds for drug discovery in medicinal plants. The aim of this review paper is to collect, organize, select and discuss the existing knowledge about the different uses of Artemia salina as a bench-top bioassay for the discovery and purification of bioactive natural products.

At international and national levels, there are public and private organizations, institutions and regulatory authorities, who work and cooperate between them and with Pharmaceutical Industry, in order to achieve a consensus of the guidelines and laws of the manufacturing of medicinal products for human use. This article includes an explanation of how operate and cooperate these participants, between them and expose the current regulations, following the line of European Community/European Economic Area, referencing, wherever appropriate, the practiced guidelines, outside of regulatory action of space mentioned. In this way, it is intended to achieve quality, security and effectiveness exceptional levels in the manufacturing of health products. Good Manufacturing Practice aim the promotion of the human health and consequently, to the improvement of quality of life. For achieve the proposed objectives, it is necessary to ensure the applicability of the presented concepts and show the benefits arising from this applicability.

Azadirachta indica (Neem) is a large tree that is native to India and is traditionally used due to its several properties, mainly to treat skin diseases, as well as its “herbicidal” activity. Its bark, leaves, seeds, fruits and flowers are widely used in medicinal treatment due to the presence of active secondary metabolites with biological effects, mainly limonoids and tetranortriterpenoids, such as azadirachtin. Thus, A. indica was studied in a variety of conditions, such as anticancer, antiseptic, anti-inflammatory and chemopreventive agents, as well as a biopesticide. Furthermore, differentiated cell tissue in A. indica cultivation was reported to produce active metabolites for different purposes. However, only a few studies have been developed regarding its potential use in cosmetics. For instance, most studies explained the antimicrobial properties in health conditions, such as acne, dandruff and personal health care. Here, we summarized not only the most common cosmetic claims to treat acne but also mitigating other skin disorders related to inflammatory and oxidant processes in recent in vivo studies and patents to aid researchers and industrialists to select A. indica derivatives as novel cosmetic ingredients.