AKIPRESS.COM - Some traditional soups may be as effective as the leading antimalarial drugs in combating the disease, Sky News reports.

Around 500,000 people die every year from malaria worldwide, many of them children, with hundreds of thousands more made seriously ill by the parasite, which is transmitted to humans through the bite of infected mosquitoes.

Half the world's population is vulnerable to infection and resistance to conventional drugs appears to be increasing.

Researchers from Imperial College London and Great Ormond Street Hospital began investigating the possible impact of traditional cures after the discovery of the antimalarial artemesin in qinghao, a herb used in ancient Chinese medicine to combat fever.

The scientists found that some traditional vegetable and meat broths interrupted the life cycle of Plasmodium falciparum, the unicellular protozoan which causes 99% of deaths from malaria.

The study involved pupils from Eden Primary school in London being asked to bring in samples of homemade soup and broths made using family recipes passed down through generations.