Plant metabolites for treating diseases

Disease conditions arise when the body’s homeostatic environment is compromised. For centuries, natural products have been used toward the alleviation of these conditions. As a result, the research community has (left) been influenced by folklore usage to steer the way for plant and microbe identification and selection toward the treatment of and acquiring a better understanding of certain diseases. As the Pharmacognosy paradigm evolves, natural product research is no longer limited to plant-based products but also other naturally derived compounds from sources like fungi and other microbes, as well as terrestrial and marine organisms, which themselves have been used as templates for the synthesis of drugs. This chapter briefly describes the use of these products and current drugs toward treating selected infectious diseases. A brief overview of each condition is given.