Natural product growth inhibitors of Mycobacterium tuberculosis.

This review covers natural products (secondary metabolites) with reported growth inhibitory activity towards Mycobacterium tuberculosis or related organisms. Such compounds have been isolated from a variety of sources including terrestrial and marine plants and animals, and microorganisms, with the express intent of identifying novel scaffolds for the development of new antituberculosis agents. The literature from January 2003 to December 2005 (inclusive) is reviewed and 146 references to 353 compounds are cited. The compounds are presented in order of chemical type, namely lipids/fatty acids and simple aromatics, phenolics and quinones, peptides, alkaloids, terpenes (monoterpenoids, diterpenes, sesquiterpenes and triterpenes), steroids and miscellaneous structures.