Abstract

Background: Tuberculosis caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) is currently a major health concern due to its growing mortality rates around the world. The known anti-TB drugs although are available for the treatment but it produces adverse side effects on the human health and are also not very cost effective. Moreover, emergence of multidrug resistance (MDR) phenomenon has also compromised their activities.

Objective: Hence there is an urgent need to search novel drugs and compounds from natural sources having lesser side effects which have proved to be vital and widely used nowadays. Many recent studies have been established which show promising antimycobacterial activities against MTB.

Result: This review summarizes the various naturally occurring active compounds acting on different targets against MTB. Moreover, it also deals with the compounds having patent perspective.

Conclusion: Together, the article laid emphasis on reverting towards the natural compounds so that further work is carried out to exploit their therapeutic interventions.

Keywords: Mycobacterium tuberculosis, MDR, Natural compound, antimycobacterial activity, efflux pump, cell wall.