Malaria eradication: The untapped natural products goldmine

By Nasir Tajuddeen*

Contribution participating in the INPST 2018 Science Communication Awards contest.

Every year, malaria continues to cause severe morbidity and mortality. Therefore, scientists are actively collaborating with the World Health Organization towards an eradication of the disease. One of the main pillars of the eradication agenda involves killing the transmissible forms of the parasite that causes malaria, using drugs. This will, in turn, curtail the spread of the disease. However, there is a lack of compounds that can kill the transmissible form of the parasite. This blog post underlines that natural products might hold the key towards discovering the needed transmission-blocking compounds and calls for their joint exploration. Indeed, the historical link between natural compounds and the battle against malaria supports this argument.

Malaria eradication The untapped natural products goldmine

Figure 1: Stopping the spread of Plasmodium from infected humans to mosquitoes will eradicate malaria.

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