Drug development is a lengthy process associated with tremendous cost and high failure rate. On average, less than 1 in 10 drug candidates are eventually approved by the Food and Drug Administration. Traditional Chinese Medicine and Natural Products have been playing an important role and made a great contribution in new drug development, and the finding of the anti-malarial artemisinin by Chinese scientist TU Youyou is one of the famous successes in this field. The active substance basis and compositions of many traditional Chinese herbal medicines have been clarified and a large number of active compounds and novel structures have been found by now.

     Nowadays, Traditional Chinese Medicine and Natural Products still occupy an important position in the field of new drugs development. With the development of modern analytical technology, molecular library, network pharmacology, big data mining, machine learning, et al, as well as their integration into drug research and development, it has greatly improved the efficiency of targeting, purification, structural elucidation and activities screening of the leading active compounds from natural materials, and some extremely complicated structures of natural products have been clarified. In times of science and technology with rapid revolution, Traditional Chinese Medicine and Natural Products is still the footstone of new drug research and development, however, how to further integrate modern technologies and make continuous innovation and breakthroughs in this field have been a challenge!

      Consequently, Professor ZHU Hucheng (National Outstanding Youth Fund  Winner) of Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Professor YANG Xinzhou (Hubei Chutian Scholar) of South-Central Minzu University, and Investigator ZHOU Xuefeng (Guangdong Outstanding Youth Fund Winner) of South China Sea Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences are invited as the guest editors for the third issue of Journal of Holistic Integrative Pharmacy (JHIP) in 2022 to create a special issue on Traditional Chinese Medicine and Natural Products for drug research and development.

        The journal is soliciting high-quality articles on this topic from experts in the relevant field both locally and abroad, including research articles, reviews and perspectives, and so on.