**4. Amphotericin B**

Amphotericin B (Fig. 2), a polyene macrolide, has been employed in the treatment of *Leish‐ mania* since 1960, but just as a second-line drug. This drug exhibits an excellent antileishma‐ nia activity with more than 90% cure rates. Because the pure compound creates severe side effects and requires long-term treatment and extensive monitoring, liposomal application of amphotericin B is used at the moment which results in cure rates of 3–5 days (up to 100%), is convenient for the patient and is less expensive (Gradoni et al., 2008; Manandhar et al., 2008; Sundar et al., 2002; Thakur et al., 1996). The mode of action can be explained based on its chemical structure, polyene macrolide has been shown to bind to ergosterol, one of the main sterols within *Leishmania* membranes. Interference with this molecule results in an increas‐ ing permeability of the cell membrane which leads to the parasite's death (Balana-Fouce et al., 1998; Amato et al., 2008). Additionally there is some evidence that amphotericin B has an effect on the oxidative response of macrophages (Mukherjee et al., 2010), however further experiments are required to verify this effect.
