Treatment of Scabies with Herbal Medicines

Abstract

Scabies is a chronic and serious community disorder caused by a parasite commonly known as a mite (Sarcoptes scabiei var hominis). The long-term infection may lead to chronic complications such as septicemia, acute post-streptococcal glomerulonephritis, heart disease, and secondary infections. The majority of novel medicinal agents from various plant sources are responsible for the management and treatment of several types of chronic disorders. The safe and cost-effective alternative treatment strategy is the use of medicinal plants that plays a potential role against a variety of diseases due to the presence of numerous types of active phytochemicals with no or negligible adverse effect. This study gives a unique summary, including a correlation between traditional medicinal plants and their derived active phytochemicals for the significant treatment of scabies. The literature search was carried out via search engines through different databases, including Google Scholar, PubMed, Medline, ScienceDirect, etc. A large number of medicinal plants and their active medicinal agents have been reviewed with remarkable therapeutic effects against scabies. There are some limitations due to insufficient data related to limited pre-clinical and clinical trials in this particular area. This review provides a baseline to explore the therapeutic potential of these medicinal plants against skin diseases, especially scabies. However, extensive studies are required to identify, authenticate, and characterize the bioactive compounds present in these plants, which may lead to value addition in pharmaceutical industries by providing a cost-effective way of treatment with minimal side effects.