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Journal of Natural Products (abbreviated J Nat Prod) is a monthly journal on the chemistry and biology of natural product small molecules, co-published by the American Chemical Society (ACS) and the American Society of Pharmacognosy (ASP). This page is for researchers, librarians and extraction-lab staff who need to cite it correctly, tell it apart from similarly named titles, and see where it sits among related journals.
What the Journal of Natural Products is
The journal’s own society page describes it as publishing “rigorous, high-impact research and scholarly reviews on the chemistry and biology of natural product small molecules.” It also welcomes work on biosynthesis, synthesis, fermentation, chemical ecology and integrative omics (American Society of Pharmacognosy journal page, read 2026-11-08). For botanical and herbal-extract research, that makes it a primary venue for isolation, structure elucidation and bioactivity reports on plant, microbial and marine compounds.
Who runs it and what it covers
- Publishers: the ASP page states the journal is co-published monthly by ACS and ASP.
- Editor-in-Chief: the ASP page lists Bradley S. Moore.
- Scope: natural product chemistry and biology, as quoted above.
- History: the National Library of Medicine (NLM) Catalog records an earlier title, Lloydia, and notes publication by the American Society of Pharmacognosy and the Lloyd Library and Museum. The NLM record lists the Journal of Natural Products as starting with volume 42, January/February 1979, and notes articles mainly in English with some in French.
- Indexing: the NLM Catalog shows it as currently indexed for MEDLINE (checked 2026-11-08), under the broad subject heading Pharmacology.
Identifiers to use when citing it
Several journals share the words “natural products” or “natural medicines”, so cite by identifier rather than by title alone. These values come from NLM Catalog record 7906882 (read 2026-11-08):
| Identifier | Value |
|---|---|
| NLM Catalog ID | 7906882 |
| MEDLINE / PubMed abbreviation | J Nat Prod |
| Print ISSN | 0163-3864 |
| Electronic ISSN | 1520-6025 |
| Earlier title | Lloydia |
| Country of publication (NLM) | United States |
The print and electronic ISSNs identify the same serial in different media; see ISSN vs eISSN for when each is used. Because the abbreviation is a MEDLINE form, it is what appears in PubMed citations; to retrieve the journal’s articles in PubMed, the PubMed advanced search builder lets you restrict a query to a journal field.
Finding the journal and its instructions
The ACS publishes the journal at pubs.acs.org/journal/jnprdf; author guidelines, the submission system and article-processing-charge details are on that ACS site and are not reproduced here. The ASP journal page also notes that ASP members publishing open access can ask the ACS open-access team about a $500 discount on the article-processing charge (ASP page, read 2026-11-08); confirm current terms with ACS before submitting.
Strengths and limits
Strengths
- Two named publishers with a society behind the title, and a continuous record in the NLM Catalog since 1979 (with Lloydia before that).
- Active MEDLINE indexing, so articles are retrievable through PubMed.
- A scope statement that explicitly spans chemistry and biology of natural-product small molecules, including biosynthesis and chemical ecology.
Limits
- Scope is small molecules; work centred on whole herbal products, clinical outcomes or ethnobotanical field data may fit a different journal better (see the table below).
- This page does not report impact metrics, which change annually; for how such metrics are defined and compared see journal impact factor and quartile rankings.
Related journals in the NLM Catalog
These titles cover adjacent ground. Each row is taken from that journal’s own NLM Catalog record (read 2026-11-08); it records bibliographic facts only and is not a ranking or a recommendation.
| Journal | MEDLINE abbreviation | ISSN (print / electronic) | NLM publisher | Start |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Journal of Natural Products | J Nat Prod | 0163-3864 / 1520-6025 | American Society of Pharmacognosy (with ACS) | 1979 (v. 42) |
| Journal of Ethnopharmacology | J Ethnopharmacol | 0378-8741 / 1872-7573 | Elsevier Sequoia | 1979 |
| Phytochemistry | Phytochemistry | 0031-9422 / 1873-3700 | Elsevier | 1961 |
| Planta Medica | Planta Med | 0032-0943 / 1439-0221 | George Thieme | 1953 |
| Journal of Natural Medicines | J Nat Med | 1340-3443 / 1861-0293 | Springer | 2006 |
For the data side of natural-product research, the GNPS molecular networking platform is a separate resource for mass-spectrometry data; it is not a journal.
FAQ
What is the Journal of Natural Products?
A monthly journal on the chemistry and biology of natural product small molecules, co-published by ACS and the American Society of Pharmacognosy.
What is its PubMed abbreviation?
J Nat Prod, per the NLM Catalog (record 7906882).
What are its ISSNs?
0163-3864 (print) and 1520-6025 (electronic).
Was it published under another name?
The NLM Catalog lists Lloydia as an earlier title.
Is it indexed in MEDLINE?
The NLM Catalog shows its indexing status as current as of 2026-11-08.
Sources
- American Society of Pharmacognosy, Journal of Natural Products page: https://pharmacognosy.us/journal-of-natural-products/ (read 2026-11-08)
- NLM Catalog records: Journal of Natural Products (7906882) https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nlmcatalog/7906882; Journal of Ethnopharmacology (7903310); Phytochemistry (151434); Planta Medica (66751); Journal of Natural Medicines (101518405), all read 2026-11-08 via NCBI E-utilities
- ACS journal home: https://pubs.acs.org/journal/jnprdf
