Submissions

Author Guidelines

Manuscripts can be written in Spanish or in English, in both cases with title and abstract in both languages. At the moment the manuscripts can be received prepared in Microsoft Word 2004 (Win/Mac) or Apple Works, in double-spaced and in font “Times new Roman 12. It is recommended to use the template “Rev Prod Nat.dot”, and the style RevProdNat.ens”, which can be downloaded and placed in the folders “Templates” and “Styles”, respectively, of software  EndNote X or EndNote 20. These will facilitate the preparation of the manuscript and the handling of the appointments and bibliographical references, the tables and the figures.

The template is divides in four sections that contain the following sections:

1) Cover to letter, 2) Abstract and summary, 3) Body of the manuscript, 4) References, Figures and Tables. All the sections are written to double-spaced, except the references.

COVER LETTER

It contains the title in Spanish and English (Times New Roman, 16 points, Capital letters), names of the authors (Full name, Times New Roman, 12 points, Small letters) and the data of the institutional affiliation (Times New Roman, 12 points, Small letters). If the authors belong to different institutions, they have to indicate it with numbers in superscript. The correspondence author emphasizes itself with an asterisk.

In the title it is recommended to use a maximum of 15 words or 100 characters. Expressions like chemical Evaluation of…, Study…, Investigation…, Examination of…, etc. must be avoided to the maximum.  The taxonomic authority in the scientific names is omitted in the title.

ABSTRACT AND “RESUMEN”

When writing abstract in English, selects the language “English (U.S.)” and for the “resumen” in Spanish select “Spanish International”. In both cases it must be concise, detailing in a single paragraph the problem, method, greater findings and conclusions. It does not have to exceed 150 words.

This section also includes Keywords (English) and “palabras clave” (Spanish). It is possible to write up to six key words, following the order: scientific name of plants (binomial System), family, biological activity, compound class, proteins or genes, compound names.

THE MANUSCRIPT BODY

Organization IMRAD is used (Introduction, Methods, Results and Discussion). The only difference is the change of Methods by Experimental Section. Acknowledgements are included at the end.

INTRODUCTION

It displays relations of the study with works previously published, without reiterating or trying a complete revision of literature. It must provide the minimum historical data to contextualize the author research and its relations with other similar previous investigations. It must express clearly and concisely the aims of the research, its meaning, originality or contribution to the new knowledge in the area.

EXPERIMENTAL SECTION

The intention of this section is to describe and to defend the experimental design; so sufficient details are provided so that any colleague can repeat the experiments. This reproducibility is particularly important, since it is the angular stone of the scientific method. Another intention is to allow the readers (including peer reviewers) to judge the convenience of the experimental methods, the validity of the results and the extension in which these can become general. When the manuscript is under evaluation by peer reviewers, the experimental section is carefully read and if there are serious doubts on the reproducibility of the experiments, the referees will recommend the rejection of the manuscript, without mattering that so impressive the results are.

The subtitles of this section are written in small letter and bold. As much as possible, constructs the subtitles so that they adjust to those used in the results and discussion. Do not mix some results in this section. Thus the writing of the two sections will be easier, consistent and the readers will find easily the relations of a particular method to the results. Some applicable subtitles are:

General experimental procedures

This subtitle includes details of the instruments used, specialized reagents and kits used for biochemistry or molecular Biology, indicating the brand name, city and country, without including catalogue numbers. The general order is as follow: melting points, optical rotation, UV spectra, circular dicroism spectra (CD), nuclear magnetic resonance spectra (NMR), mass spectra (MS), chromatographic techniques (HPLC, GC, EC) and other techniques. It is recommended to use the common abbreviations of international literature in English version, as much for techniques as for reagents.

Biological agents

Here to the sources and documentation of the used biological agents are described, such as the complete plant or crude parts of the plant, drugs or any other vegetal material from which new substances were obtained and identified. The documentation must include the reference to specimens of collection and numbers of herbarium (voucher number) of the plants and other analyzed materials. The specimens must preferentially be deposited in greater regional herbaria where the collections are maintained by the state or private institutions that allow the loan of such materials. For microorganisms, the documentation must include the collection culture from which was obtained or to which were deposited, along with the code of designation of the strain.

The scientific names (Genus species Authority) of all the experienced plants are written complete in the first appearance, in agreement with the “Index Kewensis” (www.ipni.org) and preferably must be in the form recommended by “the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature” (www.bgbm.fu-berlin.de/iapt/nomenclature/code/tokyo-e/default.htm). If the organism is not identified until the specific epithet, the manuscript is not accepted, unless a specimen is deposited in a recognized herbarium and with an expert taxonomist in the particular group of organisms. The taxonomist will assign a unique number of identification to the specimen and write a brief taxonomic description to include it in the manuscript (supporting material). If sequences of DNA are used, these data must be deposited in “GenBank” (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/). Additionally, photographs can be enclosed as supporting material.

Assays for biological activity

If a single type of biological activity is reported, the biological word by the corresponding activity can be replaced (antifungal, antibacterial, etc). If several tests of biological activity are reported, subtitles of third level can be placed, in normal small letter. If a new method of test is presented, all the necessary details are described. If significant variations to others previously reported are introduced, cite the Literature references and to emphasize in the made modifications. If the method is commonly used, reference it and omit details. If the results come from a mathematical treatment, the corresponding equations must be described here.  Also the statistical processing must be expressed briefly.

The manuscripts that involve experiments with animals or human beings, must include a declaration of fulfillment of the appropriate laws and the institutional lineaments emitted by the institutional committee of ethics that approved the experiments.

Extraction and purification

In this subtitle the extraction processes are described, fractionation, preparative chromatography, TLC or spectroscopic monitoring, including the masses of departure material, intermediate fractions and obtained pure compounds. The pure compounds are referenced with numbers in bold without parenthesis when the name is not indicated and whit parenthesis when it is preceded of the name. For example: The purification by HPLC of fraction C produced compounds 1 (2 mg), 5 (23 mg) and 8 (5 mg) or the purification by HPLC of fraction C produced kaempferol (1) (2 mg), quercetin (5) (23 mg) and cafeic acid (8) (5 mg).

Compound characterization

If previously isolated and characterized compounds in another article are reported, cite the bibliographical reference. If new data are reported, like spectra in different solvent that confirm doubtful assignments of a known substance, they are detailed here in the same way that the data of substances described for the first time. The order must be as in the following hypothetical example (the values in each technique correspond to different compound):

Compound Name (Number assigned in the text)

Physical state of the compound (oil, crystal, colorless liquid, amorphous dust, etc); boiling or melting point  (mp 175-176);  molecular formula (C68H50O44), HPLC NP-1 tR: 19.4 min, RP-1 tR: 8.4 min.,specific optical rotation ([]27D +86.5º (c= 1.0, MeOH);  UV (MeOH)   max nm (log e): 217(5.29), 274(4.91); circular dicroism  CD (c = 0.01, MeOH): [ ]227 +3.32 x 105, [ ]238 +2.36 x 105, [ ]261 -7.98 x 104, [ ]282 +4.52 x 104, [  ]310 -1.67 x 104; IR (KBr) `nmax (cm-1): 3430, 2924, 2861, 1632, 1313, 1158, 1077, 809, 621; 1H-NMR (Acetone-d6 + D2O) d: 7.16, 7.14 (1H each one, s, galloyl H-2,6), 6.72, 6.44 (1H each one, s, HHDP H-3,3`),  6.18 (1H, d, J = 8.5, H-1),  5.24 (1H, t, J = 9.5, H-3),  5.06 (1H, dd, J = 8.5, 9.6, H-2),  4.63 (1H, dd, J = 12.0, 1.0, Ha-6),  4.51 (1H, dd, J = 12.0, 5.0, Hb-6),  4.11 (1H, ddd, J = 9.5, 5.0, 1.0, H-5),  4.05 (1H, t, J = 9.5, H-4); 13C-NMR (Pyridine-d5) : Aglycone, 106.7(C-1), 164.3 (C-2), 91.6 (C-3), 166.7 (C-4), 96.8 (C-5), 162.8 (C-6), 202.8 (C=O), 32.3 (CH3-CO-), 55.0 (CH3-O-), remainder glucose, 100.8 (C-1´), 74.1 (C-2´), 77.9(C-3´), 70.6 (C-4´), 78.6 (C-5´), 61.7 (C-6´); EIMS (70 eV) m/z (% int rel) [ion]+·: 323 (98) [M] +·, 308 (28) [M-CH3] +, etc.; HREIMS m/z 323.1152 (calc for C19H17O4N, 323.1158).

The data of nuclear magnetic resonance can be presented in tables in the section of results and discussion, according to their convenience. For more illustration see the section of tables, figures and photographs. The data of the tables in the experimental section are not due to repeat in compound characterization.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

This is the central part of the manuscript where the data (observed facts) are presented and their meaning are analyzed. The data can be displayed in tables, figures, schemes or photographs designed to optimize their understanding. The main intention of the discussion is to strictly reveal the relations between the observed facts and their agreement or discrepancy with facts reported previously, supporting them in evidences, avoiding the speculation.

Next some essential characteristics of a good discussion are suggested. 1) Present the principles, relations and generalizations shown by the results, having in mind that the results are discussed and are not summarized. 2) Emphasize some exceptions or losses of correlation and define the discrepant points. Do not take the highly risky alternative to conceal or to disguise irregular data. 3) Show how the results adjust or contrast with previously published works. 4) Discuss the theoretical implications, as well as some practical applications of the work. 5) Explain the conclusions so clearly and concisely as possible. 6) Summarize the evidences for each conclusion.

The subtitles of this section are written in small letter and bold, as much as possible fitted to those used in the experimental section.

Acknowledgements

Always there is time and space for the courtesy and the public recognition for those people and organizations that made significant contributions in the accomplishment of the investigative work. In this section it includes the essential credits by the financial support, scientific and technical attendance, maintaining the extension to the minimum.

CITES AND REFERENCES

There are two general rules to follow in the section of references: 1) the published references are due to list solely significant and 2) review all the parts of each reference against the original publication before sending the manuscript and in the stage of proof. References to non published data, summaries, secondary theses and other sources must be avoided in this section. If such references are essential, can add them in parenthesis. Articles accepted for publication can be mentioned in Literature indicating the URL or the indicator of digital objects (DOI: Digitalis Object Identifier). If EndNote software is used the DOI can introduced in the field “Electronic Resource Number”.

The references to Literature, without concerning their nature, must be numbered in sequence of appearance in the manuscript and be cited in the text with superscripts in hooks in italic thus: simple cite[1] or multiple cite[4-6]. The authors are responsible for the precision for all the cited references.

The main types of primary sources are the articles and books published in print or on line. Next some examples of cites and references for these two types of sources are given:

Printed periodical publication articles

Cite: The compound 1, isolated from the metanolic extract of Polygala hongkongensis Hemsl was identified as 6´-methoxy-8-hydroxy-3-(4-hydroxypheny)-isocroman-1-one and named hongkogenin [1]

On line periodical publication articles

Cite: The first example of biflavonoide with C6-C6” interflavone linkage was found in the methanolic extract of leaves of Miconia cabucu Hoehne (Melastomataceae) [2].

Books

Cite: Xanthan gum is a microbial gum of high molecular weight prepared by action of Xanthomonas campestris on appropriate carbohydrates. [3]

Book section or chapter

Cite: Given the intrinsic tendency of the phenolic nuclei to develop molecular interactions, it is not surprising that the examples of complexation flavonoid-protein be numerous and concerning to an ample variety of proteins[4]

References

[1]  WU, J. F., et al. (2007). Antioxidants and a new dihydroisocoumarins from Polygala hongkongensis Hemsl. Nat Prod Res., 21(7): 580-584.

[2]  RODRIGUES, J., et al. An unusual C6-C6'' linked flavonoid from Miconia cabucu (Melastomataceae). Phytochemistry, In Press, Corrected Proof.  doi:10.1016/j.phytochem.2007.04.020

[3]  ROBBERS, J. E., et al. Pharmacognosy and Pharmacobiotechnology.  1st Ed. Baltimore: Williams & Wilkins, (1996).  337 p.

[4]  DANGLES, O. and DUFOUR, C. Flavonoid-Protein Interactions. In: ANDERSEN, O. M. and MARKHAM, K. R. Flavonoids: Chemistry, Biochemistry and Applications. Boca Raton: CRC, (2006). p. 443-469.

PREPARATION OF TABLES, FIGURES AND PHOTOGRAPHS

In general, the results can be displayed in tables, figures and photographs. The tables can be elaborated based on examples of journals such as “Phytochemistry”, “Journal of Natural Products”, “Phytomedicine”, “Journal of Agriculture and Food Chemistry”, “Chemical and Pharmaceutical Bulletin” or “Journal of Ethnopharmacology”.

The descriptions of the tables are placed in the superior part as in the following example:

Table 2. Inhibiting effect of compounds 1-5 and reference compound Celecoxib on the activity of COX-1 and COX-2.

Compound

IC50 COX-1

IC50 COX-2

IC50 COX-1/IC50 COX-2

IC50 COX-2/IC50 COX-1

1

2

3

4

5

Celecoxib

The presentation of data of nuclear magnetic resonance and X-ray, can be done in tables following examples given in the following references:

Chem. Pharm. Bull. 55 (3) 376-381 (2007)

http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/jf071131n

Journal of Natural Products. 70 (1): 10A-15A (2007)

The figures and photographs can be elaborated for a column or two columns, so that they are framed within the following measures:

One column

Two columns

minimum Wide

11 cm

maximum Wide

8,5 cm

17,5 cm

Maximum high

22 cm

The figures and photographs can be recorded in some of the following formats:

EPS (format preferred for diagrams)

PDF (also specially available for diagrams)

PNG (format preferred for photos or images

TIFF

Figures of line in black and white 1200 dpi

Figures gray scale 600 dpi

Color Photographs or figures 300 dpi

JPEG

BMP

CDX (ChemDraw)

TGF (ISIS/Draw)

The chemical structures are elaborate with some software like ChemDraw or Isis/Draw using the following preferences:

1.      Drawing settings:

chain angle 120°

bond spacing 18% of width

fixed length 14,4 pt (0,508 cm, 0,2 in.)

bold width 2,0 pt (0,071 cm, 0,0278 in.)

line width 0,6 pt (0,021 cm, 0,0084 in.)

margin width 1,6 pt (0,056 cm, 0,0222 in.)

hash spacing 2,5 pt (0,088 cm, 0,0347 in.)

2.      Text setting.:

font Helvetic Arial/

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