Natural Product-Based Treatment for Leprosy

Hansen’s disease or leprosy continues to be a serious health problem globally with high prevalence rate. Epidemiologically, the disease is endemic to tropical and sub-tropical Afro-Asian countries. The emergence of dapsone and rifampicin resistance poses a big challenge to the healthcare system for alleviating this neglected tropical disease. Moreover, leprosy complications, including arthritis, neuropathy and immunological reactions, challenge the multidrug therapeutic approach. In such a scenario, the magical herbs stand high as effective alternatives in the due course of leprosy mitigation. Ethnobotanical surveys provide substantial information regarding several plants or plant parts used in folklore in the treatment of leprosy, especially in developing nations. Alkaloids, saponin glycosides, terpenoids, flavonoids and polyphenols have tremendous potential in combating mycobacterial infections on a higher note than their synthetic counterparts. The current chapter reconnoitres a plethora of medicinal flora and their bioactive constituents addressing anti-leprosy potential with an emphasis on state-of-the-art integrative bioinformatic and computational methods utilized for natural product-based anti-leprosy drug discovery.