Natural products from plants have been used since ancestral times to treat a wide variety of diseases worldwide. Plants of the genus Salvia (Sage) have been reported to be used for the prevention and treatment of various diseases and ailments. In particular, some Salvia species have been used in traditional medicine to treat diseases caused by protozoan parasites of the genera Trypanosoma, Leishmania and Plasmodium 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 Salvia 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 Salvia constituents.
Keywords: Leishmania; Plasmodium; Salvia; Trypanosoma; global health; natural products; neglected tropical diseases (NTDs).