The soup drug-on malaria watch
Tuesday November 19th, 2019
Some indigenous soup recipes, imported to the UK by immigrant communities, contain anti-malarial properties, scientists reveal today.
Many of the broths are used in their own countries to treat fever.
In two instances, soups were found to be as strongly anti-malarial as dihydroartemisinin, researchers at Imperial College, UK, reported in the Archives of Disease in Childhood.
They have been studying family recipes that originate in Europe, North America and the Middle East and conducted laboratory tests of their impact on Plasmodium falciparum, the malaria parasite.
The researchers say they have yet to identify the active ingredients in the broths. Five broths out of 56 tested were found to have anti-malarial properties. Samples of soup were brought from home by children.
The researchers say there was no common, potential active ingredient used in the five broths.
Researcher Professor Jake Baum said: “Malaria kills more than 400,000 people per year and infects more than 200 million, yet resistance to our frontline drugs continues to emerge.
“It’s really interesting to find potential routes for future drug development in something like your grandmother’s soup. In all honesty, the true strength of the study however was engaging children in the idea of what’s the difference between a natural remedy a real medicine – the answer is evidence!
"The children understood that soups could really become a drug if you test them the right way.”
The Children of Eden Primary School et al. A screen of traditional soup broths with reported antipyretic activity towards the discovery of potential antimalarials. Archives of Disease in Childhood 19 November 2019; doi: 10.1136/archdischild-2019-317590
http://adc.bmj.com/lookup/doi/10.1136/archdischild-2019-317590
Tags: Africa | Alternative Therapy | Asia | Europe | Pharmaceuticals | UK News
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