text: Blood feeding organisms digest hemoglobin  and release high quantities of free toxic heme. To avoid destruction by this molecule, the parasite biocrystallizes  heme to form  hemozoin. To date, the only definitively characterized product of hematin disposal is the pigment hemozoin. Hemozoin is per definitionem not a mineral and therefore not formed by biomineralization. Heme biocrystallization has been found in blood feeding organisms of great medical importance including Plasmodium, Rhodnius and Schistosoma. Heme biocrystallization is inhibited by quinoline antimalarials such as chloroquine.
  Targeting heme  biocrystallization remains one of the most promising avenues for antimalarial drug development because the drug target is highly specific to the malarial parasite, and outside the genetic control of the parasite.