Antileishmanial Potentials of Phytochemicals

Abstract

Leishmaniasis is a neglected tropical disease that causes severe morbidity and mortality. It has an estimated worldwide incidence of 15 million infected people and 350 million at risk, living in tropical and subtropical areas of 88 endemic countries in America, Europe, Africa, Middle East, and Asia. Current treatment of leishmaniasis relies on chemotherapy. No vaccine exists for leishmaniasis and most of the antileishmanial drugs currently in use, have disadvantages, such as severe side effects or parasite resistance. Amphotericin B and its lipid-carrier formulations have been successfully applied, while the first line drugs were no longer effective due to drug resistance. Nevertheless, very high costs of these drugs prevent their widespread use. Alternatively, many plants and plant constituents have been used over the past years for controlling such disease. In this chapter, emphasis was made on the different plants, plant extracts as well as natural lead molecules that were proved to have antileishmanial activity. © 2022 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.