The present review describes the current status of synthetic cyclic peroxides, trioxanes and trioxolanes that show significant promise as antimalarial drugs because of their artemisinin-like activity. The literature from 1996 onwards is critically surveyed to provide an update on how an age-old, persistent, debilitating and frequently deadly disease could be treated by new, affordable and effective medicines possessing the peroxide pharmacophore. The review is not exhaustive and does not cover recent progress on the lead structure artemisinin and its derivatives. Nevertheless, some mechanistic aspects gleaned from artemisinin that have relevance to synthetic peroxides are discussed.