A Quinquennial Review on Recent Advancements and Developments in Search of Anti-malarial Agents

Malaria has been a major parasitic disease in tropical and subtropical regions and is estimated to kill between one and two million people (mainly children) every year. Novel anti-malarial agents are urgently needed to combat the malarial parasites enduring resistance to the current medications, leading to increased morbidity and mortality. The heterocycles, holding a prominent position in chemistry and found in both natural and synthetic sources, have shown several biological activities including anti-malarial activity. Towards this goal, several research groups have reported the design and development of novel and potential anti-malarial agents like artemisinin, benzimidazole, benzothiazole, chalcone, cyclopeptide, fosmidomycin, furan, indole oxadiazole, 2-oxindoles, peroxides, pyrazole, pyrazolines, pyridines, pyrimidine, pyrrolidine, quinazoline, quinazolinone, quinolone, quinoline, thiazole, triazole and other scaffolds acting against newly emerging anti-malarial targets. The present work reports the complete quinquennial coverage of anti-malarial agents reported during 2016-2020 with a view of providing the merits and demerits of reported anti-malarial scaffolds, structure-activity relationship, along with their in vitro/ in vivo/ in silico profiles to the medicinal chemists working in the field of design and discovery of novel anti-malarial agents.