A NEW herbal drug developed by scientists at the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), could not have come a moment sooner for those trying to grapple with the menace of malaria.

The drug, Arteether, has been derived from a Chinese herb, Artemisia annua, known as Quinghosou in Chinese. it is being acclaimed as the most significant discovery to control falciparum mosquitoes, which carry the malarial parasite. The latest finding was disclosed at a seminar held at the ]CMR'S regional medical centre at Dibrugarh on January 7. The drug would not have any of the damaging side-effects of synthetic mosquito-control drugs.