Opportunities and Challenges for Natural Products as Novel Antituberculosis Agents

Current tuberculosis (TB) treatment suffers from complexity of the dosage regimens, length of treatment, and toxicity risks. Many natural products have shown activity against drug-susceptible, drug-resistant, and latent/dormant Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the pathogen responsible for TB infections. Natural sources, including plants, fungi, and bacteria, provide a rich source of chemically diverse compounds equipped with unique pharmacological, pharmacokinetic, and pharmacodynamic properties. This review focuses on natural products as starting points for the discovery and development of novel anti-TB chemotherapy and classifies them based on their chemical nature. The classes discussed are divided into alkaloids, chalcones, flavonoids, peptides, polyketides, steroids, and terpenes. This review also highlights the importance of collaboration between phytochemistry, medicinal chemistry, and physical chemistry, which is very important for the development of these natural compounds.