Salvia Species as Sources of Natural Products with Antiprotozoal Activity.

Natural products from plants have been used since ancestral times to treat a wide variety of diseases worldwide. Plants of the genus (Sage) have been reported to be used for the prevention and treatment of various diseases and ailments. In particular, some species have been used in traditional medicine to treat diseases caused by protozoan parasites of the genera , and and scientific studies have demonstrated the activity of various isolated constituents from these plants against these pathogens. The current review attempts to give a critical overview of published information about the antiprotozoal activity of species of the genus and their chemical constituents. It is meant to give a unified overview of these results in order to avoid repetitions caused, e.g., by limited access to some primary reports, and to stimulate further research to possibly facilitate the development of new molecular leads against protozoal neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) based on constituents.