Natural compounds obtained from plants, microorganisms, animals and their derivatives have been successfully used in medicine as therapeutic agents for years. However, their clinical use faces some important barriers related to rapid clearance, the poor water solubility of lipophilic compounds and difficulty to pass cell membrane by hydrophilic substances, instability of molecules inside the organism, etc. As a consequence of the development of nanotechnology, efficient solutions for nanodelivery have been proposed, aiming to increase the bioavailability of these substances and optimize targeting and controlled-release profiles. Consequently, therapeutic efficacy could be increased.

As a consequence of the nanostructure, nanomaterials offer a large array of properties and interactions that are unique and make drug delivery more efficient. Liposomes, for example, can perform the delivery of hydrophilic drugs that can be packed on the aqueous internal compartment limited by the hydrophilic head groups of the phospholipids with which the active molecule can also interact. Aside from liposomes, there are also a large variety of nanocarriers of medicinal natural products and derivatives of these chemicals, for example, nanoparticles of chitosan, alginate or cellulose, micelles, dendrimers, silica nanoparticles, metallic nanoparticles, nanocrystals, quantum dots, aminoacid-based nanoparticles, nanotubes. It is also possible to chemically modify the surface of nanomaterials to optimize them as nanocarriers to deliver specifically to target cells and also in a controlled way. Nanoscale materials can also be used not only to deliver natural products but to serve as adjuvants when delivering them when the interest is to induce immune response producing an increased quantity of antibodies (for example generating antivenom antibodies).

This Special Issue aims to address the latest developments regarding nanomaterials carrying natural-products-based drugs, advantages of this type of delivery and main challenges to be surpassed, as well as future directions of the field. We welcome original research and review articles.

Potential topics include but are not limited to the following:

• Benefits of nanocarriers in nanomedicine
• Nanodelivery of anticancer natural products, antimicrobial natural products, anti-inflammatory natural products, antioxidant natural products, neuroprotective natural products, and cardiovascular protective natural products
• Bioavailability of nano-delivered natural products
• Controlled release of natural products provided by nanocarriers
• Targeting the nanodelivery of natural medicinal products
• Main challenges of medicinal natural products’ nanodelivery
• Lipid-based nanocarriers
• Polymer-based nanocarriers
• Nanoparticles as nanocarriers
• Nanodelivery of venom to antivenom production
• Biocompatibility of natural products’ nanocarriers
• Future prospects of nanocarriers in nanomedicine
• Main challenges of nanocarriers in nanomedicine