Title:Anti-Toxoplasma Activity of Natural Products: A Review
Volume: 9
Issue: 3
Author(s): Juan C. Sepulveda-Arias, Luz A. Veloza and Luz E. Mantilla-Muriel
Affiliation:
Keywords:
Antiprotozoal agents, ethnopharmacology, natural products, plant extracts, Toxoplasma,
toxoplasmosis.
Abstract: Toxoplasma gondii is an intracellular parasite widely distributed in nature. Infection
is asymptomatic in immunocompetent individuals; however, various clinical manifestations
may occur in immunocompromised individuals. Although there are medications for the treatment of
toxoplasmosis, such as pyrimethamine and sulfonamide, they cannot always be used due to adverse reactions
or to therapeutic failures related to intolerance or malabsorption of drugs and to parasite drug resistance. In
recent years, the search for new antimicrobial agents derived from plants has intensified because a quarter of
synthetic drugs that are currently prescribed have been isolated from a plant source, demonstrating that natural
products are important in the development of new drugs. A systematic literature search was conducted to
evaluate the use of natural products as an alternative for the treatment of T. gondii infection. The search was
conducted for the 2000-2014 period in Science Direct, Scopus, PubMed, EMBASE, and SciELO databases,
using the following MeSH terms: anti-Toxoplasma activity, toxoplasma AND natural products, toxoplasma
AND plant extracts. Ethnobotanical and experimental evidence (in vitro/in vivo) was found supporting the use
of natural products as a source for the discovery of new therapies against T. gondii.
