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Adriana Cunha Souza [1] and Michel Muálem de Moraes Alves [1] and Lucas Moreira Brito [1] and Luciano Gomes De Castro Oliveira [1] and Enoque Pereira Costa Sobrinho-Júnior [1] and Isabella Cristhina Gonçalves Costa [2] and Sâmya Danielle Lima Freitas [2] and Klinger Antonio da Franca Rodrigues [1; 3] and Mariana Helena Chaves [2] and Daniel Dias Rufino Arcanjo [1] and Fernando Aécio de Amorim Carvalho [1]

Academic Editor: Victor Kuete

1, Medicinal Plants Research Center, Federal University of Piauí, SG-15, Ininga, 64049-550 Teresina, PI, Brazil, ufpi.br

2, Laboratory of Natural Products, Department of Chemistry, Federal University of Piauí, SG-02, Ininga, 64049-550 Teresina, PI, Brazil, ufpi.br

3, Department of Biophysics and Pharmacology, Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte, Natal, RN, Brazil, ufrn.br

Received Apr 4, 2017; Revised Jun 14, 2017; Accepted Jul 10, 2017

This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

1. Introduction

Leishmaniasis are parasitic diseases caused by protozoa from Leishmania genus. Humans are infected by the sting of sand flies which live in forest areas, caves, or rodent dens. This pathology is widely distributed throughout the world and occurs in Asia, Europe, Africa, and the Americas. Furthermore, there have been some reports of its occurrence in the American continent since colonial times [1, 2]. Leishmaniasis is capable of affecting both man and animals, affecting more than 12 million people worldwide, with 2 to 3 million of new cases each year [2, 3]. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), approximately 556 million people were in areas at risk of contamination of visceral leishmaniasis and 399 million for cutaneous leishmaniasis in 2014 [2].

Since the 1940s, chemotherapy of leishmaniasis has been based on the use of pentavalent antimonials as first choice drugs, such as sodium stibogluconate (Pentostan®) and meglumine antimoniate (Glucantime®) [4]. Second-line drugs, such as pentamidine and amphotericin B, are important in the therapy of patients with coinfections, or in cases of resistance to antimonials [5, 6]. However, these drugs require long-term parenteral administration and have serious adverse effects in addition to high relapse rates, especially in immunocompromised patients [5, 7]. Therefore, considering these difficulties, the search for new...

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