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Full list of author information is available at the end of the articleBackground In the absence of a credible vaccine and with emergence of resistance to almost all anti-malarial drugs, the dream of eradication of malaria appears to be a huge challenge. Caused by a protozoan parasite, malaria remains one of the dreaded diseases of the developing world, killing 367,000–755,000 people and causing disease in 124–283 million people annually [1]. The most severe manifesta-tions of malaria are caused by Plasmodium falciparum. Even as malaria has been affecting both the economic and emotional aspects of mankind for a long time, the relief against malaria has been coming in the form of herbal treatments, such as cinchona bark and Qing Hao leaves, which gave quinine and artemisinin respectively. The quinoline-based quinine first and chloroquine later proved to be effective therapies against malaria till resist-ance against quinolines began to surface and spread to large parts of the world [2]. Against this scenario, arte