ESPEYB17 14. The Year in Science and Medicine (1) (16 abstracts)
14.13. Screen of traditional soup broths with reported antipyretic activity towards the discovery of potential antimalarials
Straschil U , Witmer K , Delves MJ , Marks SD & Baum JChildren of Eden Primary School
To read the full abstract: Arch Dis Child. 2019 Dec;104(12):1138-1142. doi: 10.1136/archdischild-2019-317590.
Many effective drugs originated from traditional remedies. The 2016 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded to Tu Youyou, whose work underpinned the development of the anti-malarial drug artemisinin by isolating the active ingredient of ‘Qinghao’, which has been used in Chinese traditional medicine for over 2000 years.
In this truly engaging approach, children attending an ethnically diverse primary school in London were asked to bring in soup samples with claimed antipyretic activity. Samples were then tested in vitro for their ability to arrest malaria parasite growth and transmission. The children provided 56 soup samples, from across their European, North African and the Middle Eastern cultures. Five samples showed >50% in vitro growth inhibition against P. falciparum asexual blood stages.
In our current era of large-scale screening using molecular ‘omics approaches to new drug discovery, efforts should also keep an eye open for potential active ingredients in traditional medicines that have been used for hundreds of years.
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ESPE Yearbook of Paediatric Endocrinology
ISSN 1662-4009 (Online)
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