A new herbicide by a first-year University of Toronto student is currently undergoing drug development to potentially become an oral medication for malaria.
The treatment, developed by Jessie MacAlpine, is a herbicide in which the main component is mustard oil, a common kitchen oil in many developing countries.
MacAlpine said the treatment has been proven extremely effective in testing so far.
A single dose of the herbicide was able to prevent over 94 per cent of the malarial infection, which is equal to the effectiveness of current anti-malarials on the market.
Although the tests conducted using this compound as a treatment have been extremely effective, MacAlpine said she still believes this method has more possibilities.
“It also has the potential to be used as a preventative method based on the chemical properties of the compound,” MacAlpine said. “That still has to be investigated, but it is promising that it could be both a preventative method and a treatment.”
There are many stages MacAlpine has yet to go through in order for the drug to be fully developed and widely distributed.
“Unfortunately, drug development takes a very long time and it is still very much in the initial stages,” she said. “Right now I am working on mouse trials . . . if that turns back positive results, then I would start looking at things like clinical trials.”
Malaria is prevalent in more than 100 countries and about half of the world’s population is at risk of contracting the disease, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
In 2010, over 90 per cent of all deaths caused by malaria were within the WHO African region, with the majority of these deaths being children younger than five years old.
Myron Smith, chair of Carleton University’s biology department, said it is difficult to develop effective anti-malarials.
“Malaria disproportionately impacts developing countries, and people there may not be able to pay for new drugs, so there is less incentive for pharmaceutical companies to develop such a product,” he said.
He said it is promising to use an herbicide as a treatment, due to the accessibility of natural sources and the low cost of development compared to pharmaceuticals.
Alex Wong, an assistant biology professor at Carleton, also said he felt this method had potential.
“If mustard oil turns out to be effective in humans, then it would provide a low cost, readily available, and easily distributed treatment,” he said.
MacAlpine said she would most likely look into a partnership with a non-profit agency in order to distribute the mustard oil to the countries most affected by malaria once testing is complete.
