Leishmaniasis
Leishmaniasis is a disease with high mortality and morbidity caused by intracellular protozoa of the genus Leishmania, transmitted by the bite of certain types of sandflies. It mainly affects dogs, but can also affect humans and cats. The clinical manifestations of the disease range from skin ulcers to fatal inflammation of the liver and spleen. Being a chronic disease, most treatments for this disease become toxic, expensive or ineffective. Interestingly, sesquiterpenes, such as artemisinin, are a class of biomolecules present in plants with proven antimicrobial and antiparasitic activities.
In fact, multiple international scientific publications have demonstrated the great potential of artemisinin present in the leaf of the medicinal plant Artemisia annua as an adjuvant for the treatment of parasites. annua as an adjuvant for uncomplicated leishmaniasis.
