A new study suggests that some homemade soups — made of chicken, beef or vegetables — might help fight malaria.
Jake Baum of the Imperial College London led the research. He asked children at a London school to bring in homemade clear soups that their families would make to treat a fever. The soups were then exposed to the parasite (寄生虫) that creates 99.7 percent of malaria cases in Africa, the World Health Organization explained.
Of the 56 soups tested five were more than 50 percent effective in containing the growth of the parasite. Two were as effective as one drug now used to treat malaria. And four soups were more than 50 percent effective at preventing parasites from aging to the point that they could infect mosquitoes that spread the disease. Baum also noted that it was unclear which foods made the soups effective against malaria.
The soups came from families from different ethnic histories, including Europe, North Africa and the Middle East. They had several main ingredients, including chicken, beef and green vegetables. Baum said the vegetarian soups showed similar results to the soups with meat.
Baum said his aim was in part to show children that scientific research can turn a herbal (草本的) cure into a man-made medicine. He noted the research of Dr. Tu Youyou from China. In the 1970s, she found that the herb quinhao was an effective antimalarial (抗疟疾的) treatment. The herb has been used in Eastern medicine for two thousand years. Tu's research led to the man-made drug artemisinin (青蒿素), a drug now widely used to treat malaria.
More and more people are becoming resistant (耐受的) to the drugs that treat the disease, which kills nearly 400,000 people a year. That means scientists will have to "look beyond chemistry" and find new drugs, Baum adds.
