Leishmaniasis is a neglected tropical disease caused by a protozoan parasite
of the genus Leishmania, mainly associated with the lack of community hygiene and
poverty in the developing countries. Leishmaniasis can be cured but the emergence of
drug resistance makes it difficult to completely eradicate the disease. Even after so
many years, there is still no vaccine available against leishmaniasis. Therefore,
treatment of the disease is mainly dependent on the available therapeutic drugs.
However, the current chemotherapeutic drugs have several drawbacks such as high
toxicity, less efficacy, high cost and emergence of drug resistance, etc. So, to boost the
elimination of disease, development of newer therapeutic agents is imperative. As all
this is very well-known, including the current anti-leishmanial drugs with their adverse
effects, the authors state that the main objective of this book chapter is to present an
overview of the disease, its different clinical forms and the diagnostic tools available
for the detection of the disease. Natural sources such as plants and microorganisms
have shown great results against Leishmania species over the years, indicating that they
may be considered as therapeutic agents. Hereafter, potent investigational drugs
obtained from the natural sources such as medicinal plants and microorganisms are also
discussed in this book chapter.
Keywords: Amastigotes, Amphotericin B, Cutaneous leishmaniasis, Endophytes,
Immunological tests, Kinetoplast, Leishmaniasis, Macroalgae, Miltefosine,
Molecular diagnostic methods, Mucocutaneous leishmaniasis, Paromomycin,
Pentamidine, Pentavalent antimonials, Post Kala-azar Dermal Leishmaniasis
(PKDL), Promastigotes, Secondary metabolites, Serological diagnosis, Visceral
leishmaniasis or Kala-azar.
