Anti-Toxoplasma Activity of Natural Products: A Review

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. Keywords: Antiprotozoal agents, ethnopharmacology, natural products, plant extracts, Toxoplasma, toxoplasmosis.