**9.5 Quinacrine**

Quinacrine (also known as mepacrine) was commonly used as a prophylactic during WWII, and was marketed under the brand name Atabrine [88]. Quinacrine is a derivative of methylene blue, a different anti-malarial discovered in 1891 [89, 90]. Quinacrine is no longer used because it has a high risk of harmful side effects, such as toxic psychosis [88]. It is one of the most dangerous antimalarial medications, despite the fact that it was once widely used (**Table 1**).


Intercalation of DNA strands, succinic dehydrogenase and mitochondrial electron transport, and cholinesterase are all sites where it functions within the cell. It

#### **Table 1.**

*List of drugs repurposed in malaria treatment.*

has been used as a sclerosing agent and may be tumorgenic and mutagenic. Quinacrine can cause yellow discoloration of the skin and urine because it is an acridine dye.
