I. Types of Manuscript

The Journal publishes Reviews, Regular Articles, and Short Communications.

1. Reviews: (1) Regular Reviews: Describing the research results of the author; (2) Invited Reviews: Reviews are submitted by invitationfrom the editorial board, and encompass recent important scientific discoveries.

2. Regular Articles: The manuscript being submitted must consist of original research performed by the authors and the research mustinclude new information that is of significance.

3. Short Communications: Papers containing new facts and important data derived from incomplete or partial studies may be suitable as aShort Communications. In general, a Short Communications should not exceed 2,000 words (approximately 4 printed pages).

II. Manuscript Preparation

The content of manuscripts must be arranged as follows: (1) a Graphical Abstract; (2) a Title Page with authors name(s) and address(es); (3)and Abstract, in which contents are briefly stated; (4) Keywords; (5) Introduction, and (6) the Results and Discussion (preferably combined).

Although each section may be separated by headings, they should form one continuous narrative and only include details essential to thearguments presented. If a discussion is separately provided, it should not include a repetition of the results, but only indicate conclusionsreached on the basis of them, and those from other referred works; (7) the Experimental Section should include brief details of the methodsused such that a competent researcher in the field may be able to repeat the work; (8) Acknowledgments; (9) References, Figures and Tables.Authors have to include pagination.

1. Graphical Abstract: The graphical abstract, which authors must supply at the time the manuscript is first submitted, so that readers candetermine the content and importance of the manuscript at a glance. Graphical abstracts should consist of carefully drawn figures (chemicalstructures, charts, graphs, or other informative illustration) that show the most striking feature of the article in a pictorial form. The use ofcolor to enhance the value and quality of the graphic is encouraged. Compound numbers can be given in the graphical abstract if they refer toa graphic also shown there.

2. Title Pag: The title should appear on a separate page and should be followed by the author names and the institution name and address.The title, author name(s), and affiliations should all appear on their own respective line of text. Place an asterisk after the name of the authorto whom enquiries regarding the paper should be directed and include that author’s telephone and fax numbers and e-mail address.

3. Abstract and Keywords: The abstract, detailing, in one paragraph, the problem, experimental approach, major findings, and conclusions,should appear on the second page. It should be double spaced and should not exceed 200 words for Full Papers and Reviews or 100 words forShort Communications. Compounds mentioned in the abstract, and given as specific Arabic numerals that are bolded in the text, should alsobe accompanied in the abstract by the same bolded numerals. The abstract should be on a separate page and should be untitled. The keywordsshould contain 3 to 6 descriptive keywords, listed in decreasing order of importance. The first 3 keywords must be independent, as they willbe used in a keyword combination in the index (within 80 characters).

4. Introduction: The manuscript should include an untitled introduction stating the purpose of the investigation and relating the manuscriptto similar research.

5. Results and Discussion: The results should be presented concisely. Tables and figures should be designed to maximize the presentationand comprehension of the experimental data. The discussion should interpret the results and relate them to existing knowledge in the field inas clear and brief a fashion as possible.

6. Experimental Section: The Experimental should begin with a subsection entitled General Experimental Procedures. This subsection willtypically contain brief details of instruments used, and identification of sources of specialized chemicals, biochemicals and molecular biologykits.

The next subsection describes the source(s) and documentation of biological materials used, whether in reference to whole plants or partstherefrom, crude drugs, or any other plant material from which identifiable chemical substances are obtained for the first time. Documentationmust also include a reference to voucher specimen(s) and voucher number(s) of the plants or other material examined. If available, authorsshould quote the name and address of the authority who identified each non-cultivated plant investigated. Specimens should preferentially bedeposited in a major regional herbarium where the collection is maintained by state or private institution and which permits loan of suchmaterials.

With other microorganisms, the culture collection from which they were either accessed and/or deposited should be included, together withidentification of the strain designation code. The Experimental Procedures employed should be concise but sufficiently detailed that aqualified researcher will be able to repeat the studies undertaken, and these should emphasize either truly new procedures or essentialmodifications of existing procedures. Experimental details normally omitted include: (1) method of preparation of common chemical andbiochemical derivatives, (2) excessive details of separation of compounds, proteins and enzymes, e.g. preparation of columns, TLC plates,column and fraction size.

Compound characterization: Physical and spectroscopic data for new compounds must be comprehensive, and follow the order shown below:compound name (and assigned number in text); physical state of compound (e.g. oil, crystal, liquid, etc.), melting and/or boiling point; opticalrotation and/or circular dichroism measurements, if optically active; UV; IR, 1H NMR; 13C NMR; MS. For all new compounds, eitherhigh-resolution mass spectral or elemental analysis data are required.

7. Acknowledgment: The Acknowledgment section should include credits [initial(s) and last name] for technical assistance, financialsupport, and other appropriate recognition.

8. Conflict of Interest: All authors must declare any conflicts of interest. Any potential conflict of interest that might constitute anembarrassment to any of the authors if it were not to be declared and were to emerge after publication should be declared. Such conflictsmight include, but are not limited to, author (or first degree relative) shareholding in or receipt of a grant or consultancy fee from a companywhose product features in the submitted manuscript or which manufactures a competing product.

In addition, all authors must submit a statement of Conflict of Interest to be published at the end of their article. If no Conflict of Interest isdeclared, this will be stated in the article using the following wording:

“Conflict of interest: The authors declare no conflict of interest.”

9. References: Please ensure that every reference cited in the text is also present in the reference list (and vice versa). Unpublished resultsand personal communications are not recommended in the reference list, but may be mentioned in the text. Citation of a reference as 'in press'implies that the item has been accepted for publication. Each reference may have its own citation number, or alternatively.

10. Electronic Supplementary Material: Natural Products and Bioprospecting accepts Electronic Supplemental Material. Supplementalfiles supplied will be published alongside the electronic version of your article in Natural Products and Bioprospecting web products.

11. Additional Information for Review: Other data necessary for review may be submitted as additional information. Additionalinformation will not be published in the journal.

III. Manuscript Form

1. Affiliations: When there are two or more authors and they belong to more than one affiliation, the connection between each author and hisor her affiliation should be indicated by a, b, c… placed after each author’s name and before each affiliation.Examples for describing affiliations and mailing addresses:

^aState Key Laboratory of Phytochemistry and Plant Resources in West China, Kunming Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences,Kunming 650201, China

^bUniversity of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China

2. Abbreviations: Abbreviations must be spelled out in full at their initial appearance, followed by the abbreviation in parentheses.Thereafter, the abbreviation only may be used. Please limit to an absolute minimum the use of abbreviations in the title. However, thefollowing need not be defined: ADP (adenosine 5'-diphosphate), AIDS (acquired immunodeficiency syndrome), AMP (adenosine5'-monophosphate or adenylic acid), ATP (adenosine 5'-triphosphate), cAMP (adenosine 3',5'-cyclic monophosphate), cDNA (complementaryDNA), CoA (coenzyme A), DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid), ED50 (50% effective dose), ESR (electron spin resonance), FABMS (fast atombombardment mass spectrometry), FAD (flavin adenine dinucleotide), GCMS (gas chromatography-mass spectrometry), GLC (gas-liquidchromatography), GMP (guanosine 5'-monophosphate), HPLC (high-performance liquid chromatography, high-pressure liquidchromatography), IC50 (inhibitory concentration, 50%), IR (infrared), LC (liquid chromatography), LC/MS (liquid chromatography/massspectrometry), LD50 (50% lethal dose), mRNA (messenger RNA), MS (mass spectrum), NMR (nuclear magnetic resonance), P450 (as incytochrome P450), RNA (ribonucleic acid), TLC (thin-layer chromatography), tRNA (transfer RNA), UV (ultraviolet)

3. Units: The following units should be used: length (m, cm, mm, μm, nm, ?), mass (kg, g, mg, μg, ng, pg, mol, mmol, μmol), volume (L,mL, μL), time (s, min, h, d), temperature (°C, K), radiation (Bq, dpm, Gy, Sv), and concentration (M, mM, mol/L, mmol/L, mg/mL,μg/mL, %, % (v/v), % (w/v), ppm, ppb)

4. Spectral Data: Please report spectral data in the following format. Melodinine N (1): colorless needles (MeOH); mp 176–177 °C; [a]21D– 62.3 (c 0.3, MeOH); UV (MeOH) λ_max (log e) 289 (3.69), 241 (4.06), 224 (3.74), 220 (3.74), 213 (3.72), 205 (3.72) nm; IR (KBr) n_max 3425,2950, 1725, 1605, 1464, 1174, 752 cm^?1; ¹H NMR (CDCl₃, 500 MHz) d8.21 (1H, d, J = 7.5 Hz, H-9), 7.01 (1H, t, J = 7.5 Hz, H-11), 6.77(1H, t, J = 7.5 Hz, H-10), 6.62 (1H, d, J = 7.5 Hz, H-12), 5.67 (1H, d, J = 9.7 Hz, H-15), 5.62 (1H, m, H-14), 4.44 (2H, br. s, H-3), 3.91-3.87(2H, m, H-5), 3.78 (1H, s, H-21), 3.75 (3H, s, CO₂CH₃), 2.94 (1H, m, H-16), 2.88 (1H, m, H-6b), 2.34 (1H, m, H-17b), 2.15 (1H, m, H-6a),2.04 (1H, m, H-18b), 1.78 (1H, m, H-19b), 1.71 (1H, m, H-17a), 1.60 (1H, t, J = 12.0 Hz, H-19a), 1.30 (1H, t, J = 12.0 Hz, H-18a); ¹³C NMR(CDCl₃, 100 MHz) d173.9 (C, CO₂Me), 148.5 (C, C-13), 136.4 (C, C-8), 130.0 (CH, C-15), 127.7 (CH, C-11), 126.6 (CH, C-9), 120.5 (CH,C-10), 120.1 (CH, C-14), 82.6 (CH, C-21), 69.1 (CH2, C-5), 65.8 (C, C-2), 65.7 (CH2, C-3), 58.7 (C, C-7), 52.3 (CH3, CO2CH3), 43.1 (CH,C-16), 35.2 (C, C-20), 32.9 (CH2, C-18), 32.5 (CH2, C-17), 32.2 (CH2, C-6), 32.2 (CH2, C-19); ESIMS m/z 353 [M + H]⁺; positive ionHRESIMS m/z 353.1865 (calcd for C₂₁H₂₅N₂O₃ [M + H]⁺, 353.1866).

5. Nomenclature: The nomenclature used for chemical compounds shall be in accordance with the nomenclature rules formulated byIUPAC. Alternatively, naming may conform to the nomenclature in the index of Chemical Abstracts or the Ring Index.

6. References: References to the literature, regardless of their nature, should be numbered in order of appearance in the manuscript andcited in the text with numbers in brackets. Each reference may have its own citation number, or alternatively, references referring to the sametopic may be grouped under a common number using alphabetical subdesignations (e.g., 1a, 1b, 1c, etc.). References should follow the formatshown:

[1] M.K. Slifka, J.L. Whitton, J. Mol. Med. 78, 74–80 (2000)

[2] H. Ibach, H. Lüth, Solid-State Physics, 2nd edn. (Springer, New York, 1996), pp. 45–56

[3] S.E. Smith, in Neuromuscular Junction, ed. by E. Zaimis. Handbook of Experimental Pharmacology, vol 42 (Springer, Heidelberg, 1976),p. 593

[4] S.T. Chung, R.L. Morris, Isolation and characterization of plasmid deoxyribonucleic acid from Streptomyces fradiae. Paper presented atthe 3rd international symposium on the genetics of industrial microorganisms, University of Wisconsin, Madison, 4–9 June 1978

[5] J.W. Trent, Dissertation, University of California, 1975

[6] L.O. Norman, U.S. Patent 4,379,752, 9 Sept 1998

[7] Healthwise Knowledgebase (US Pharmacopeia, Rockville, 1998), http://www.healthwise.org. Accessed 21 Sept 1998

[8] J. Doe, Title of supplementary material (2000), http://www.privatehomepage.com. Accessed 22 Feb 2000

[9] J. Doe, Title of preprint (1999), http://www.uni-heidelberg.de/mydata.html. Accessed 25 Dec 1999

[10] ISSN International Centre: The ISSN register (2006), http://www.issn.org. Accessed 20 Feb 2007

The author is responsible for the accuracy and completeness of all references. In particular, authors must cite all of the references from theirown work on a particular topic, such as all papers published or submitted on the constituents of a given organism under consideration.

IV. Recommendations for Crystal Structure Papers

When structure determination by X-ray crystallographic analysis is a central theme of a paper, the data required for registration with theCambridge Crystallographic Data Centre (CCDC) should be attached as supplementary material. Although this does not apply in cases wherecrystallographic analysis plays only a supplementary role, crystal data (unit cell parameters, space group, Z density) and R-factor should stillbe noted. Atomic coordinates will be printed when the structure is important. Bond lengths and angles, thermal parameters, and torsion angleswill be printed when they are important for the issues addressed in the paper. When papers have been accepted, the authors are advised toregister the data with CCDC.

V. Manuscript Submission

1. Web Submission: Manuscripts must be submitted via the Web. Complete instructions and an overview of the electronic online (Web)submission process are available through the Springer Open. Authors must also submit all revisions of manuscripts via Springer Open. Theweb submission site employs state-of-the-art security mechanisms to ensure that all electronically submitted papers are secure. These samesecurity mechanisms are also utilized throughout the peer-review process, permitting access only to editors and reviewers who are assigned toa particular paper. Hard copy manuscript submission is not applicable for the Natural Products and Bioprospecting.

2. General File Preparation: When preparing a manuscript, use the document mode or its equivalent in the word-processing program; i.e.,do not save files in “Text Only” (ASCII) mode. If a non-Western version of the word-processing software was used to prepare the manuscript,save the file in rich-text format (RTF). Do not include any page-layout instructions such as placement information for graphics in the file. Thetext should be left justified, and automatic end-of-line hyphenation should be turned off. Use carriage returns only to end headings andparagraphs, not to break lines of text. Do not insert spaces before punctuation. References must conform to the format printed in the Journal.

Ensure that all characters are correctly represented throughout the manuscript: for example, 1 (one) and l (ell), 0 (zero) and O (oh), x (ex) and× (times sign). Check the final copy carefully for consistent notation and correct spelling.

3. Galley Proofs: The corresponding author of an accepted manuscript will receive e-mail notification and complete instructions when pageproofs are available for review via a secure Web site. Routine rephrasing of sentences or additions are not permitted at the page proof stage.Alterations should be restricted to serious changes in interpretation or corrections of data. Extensive or important changes on page proofs,including changes to the title or list of authors, are subject to Editorial review. It is the responsibility of the corresponding author to ensure thatall authors listed on the manuscript agree with the changes made on the proofs.

4. Corrections: If errors of consequence are detected in a published paper, the author should send a correction to the Editor for publicationas an “Addition and Correction”.

VI Human and Animal Rights

When reporting studies that involve human participants, authors should include a statement that the studies have been approved by theappropriate institutional and/or national research ethics committee and have been performed in accordance with the ethical standards as laiddown in the 1964 Declaration of Helsinki and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

If doubt exists whether the research was conducted in accordance with the 1964 Helsinki Declaration or comparable standards, the authorsmust explain the reasons for their approach, and demonstrate that the independent ethics committee or institutional review board explicitlyapproved the doubtful aspects of the study.

The following statements should be included in the text before the References section:

Ethical approval: “All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standardsof the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments orcomparable ethical standards.”

The welfare of animals used for research must be respected. When reporting experiments on animals, authors should indicate whether theinstitutional and/or national guidelines for the care and use of animals were followed.

For studies with animals, the following statement should be included:

“All applicable institutional and/or national guidelines for the care and use of animals were followed.”

VII Informed consent

All individuals have individual rights that are not to be infringed. Individual participants in studies e.g. have the right to decide what happensto the (identifiable) personal data gathered and to what they have said e.g. during a study or an interview as well as to any photograph that wastaken. Hence it is important that all participants gave their informed consent in writing prior to inclusion in the study. Identifying details(names, dates of birth, identity numbers and other information) of the participants that were studied should not be published in writtendescriptions, photographs, and genetic profiles unless the information is essential for scientific purposes and the participant (or parent orguardian if the participant is incapable) has given written informed consent for publication. Complete anonymity is difficult to achieve insome cases, and informed consent should be obtained if there is any doubt. For example, masking the eye region in photographs ofparticipants is inadequate protection of anonymity. If identifying characteristics are altered to protect anonymity, such as in genetic profiles,authors should provide assurance that alterations do not distort scientific meaning.

The following statement should be included in the cover letter:

Informed consent: “Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.”