Chagas’ disease, or American trypanosomiasis, is a potentially mortal
disease caused by the protozoan Trypanosoma cruzi. It is included in the list of
neglected diseases or poverty-linked diseases. An estimate of 5.7 million people in the
endemic areas are infected, resulting in 7000 yearly deaths. The disease is distributed in
Central and South America, Mexico, and the southern United States. Due to rural-urban
migration, the parasite is transmitted by blood transfusion, by vertical transmission
from mother to child, or by organ transplantation; on the other side, some cases have
been detected in non-endemic zones both in America and in Europe. Chagas’ disease is
among the 17 neglected diseases; it is a complex zoonosis, involving interaction of
vectors species with wild, peridomestic, and domestic mammals, showing several
clinical pictures and transmission modes. It poses the highest economic burden among
parasitic diseases in Latin America due to its long chronicity. The clinical
manifestations and epidemiologic traits of the disease vary from region to region. The
current medication against T. cruzi, nifurtimox and benznidazole, has adverse effects.
Aiming to make new treatment alternatives known, the activity of plant-isolated
compounds from Central America, South America, and Mexico is herein discussed,
along with their action against different stages of Trypanosoma cruzi.
Keywords: Chagas disease, Crude extracts, Medicinal plants, Trypanosoma cruzi.
