**7. Conclusions**

Leishmaniasis is a neglected, potentially lethal infectious disease caused by parasites in the genus *Leishmania* that affects many developing countries. Infection can lead to tegumentary or visceral manifestations of the disease. The tegumentary form of leishmaniasis (TL) includes cutaneous, mucocutaneous, and diffuse clinical manifestations, whereas visceral leishmaniasis (VL), or Kala-azar, affects organs and internal tissues. The treatment of VL is challenging and long. Treated patients need monitoring and hospitalization. Therapeutic problems include toxicity and teratogenicity of the available drugs, and low response in human immu‐ nodeficiency virus (HIV)/*Leishmania* co-infections. In addition, drug resistance is increasing. Moreover, leishmaniasis received little attention from governments and the pharmaceutical industry until the last decade. The absence of either prophylactic or preventive vaccine candidates makes it further difficult to control the disease.

The development of new parasite targets and synthetic drugs along with the research on natural products represents a major strategy for the discovery of new compounds against Leishmania sp.
