Schiff base N4O2 complexes offer a flexible template on which to develop novel antimalarial drug complexes that inhibit the aggregation of hemozoin, a detoxification product of the malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum. The efficacies of these complexes are dependent on the charges of the complexes. Further evidence suggests that these complexes inhibit hemozoin formation via a specific drug/heme propionate salt that prevents the formation of the requisite axial propionato linkage in the repeating dimeric unit of the hemozoin aggregate. [GRAPHICS]