Traditional antimalarials and the development of novel antimalarial drugs

Malaria continues to be a major cause of mortality and morbidity especially throughout the developing world. In the last 25 years or so a number of significant advances have been made that have the potential to make a major contribution to the control of this disease. The discovery of artemisinin and its analogues as potent antimalarial agents have been of immense importance and the latter, as well as some other selected developments are outlined in this brief review. (C) 2005 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.