Among the research to be presented at this week's Fourth Multilateral Initiative on Malaria Conference (MIM), is a mosquito repellent based on the properties of indigenous African plants.

Oils were extracted from 150 East African plants thought to repel malaria-infected mosquitos and 20 proved to be effective. The oils were then formulated into Mozigone – a mosquito-repelling cream that seems to be more powerful than DEET and less expensive to manufacture.

In the fight against malaria, a scientific shift towards plant medicine has increased since artemisinin (an extract of the wormwood plant) has proved to be most effective in combating the disease.

Though herbal medicine is taking on a key role in malaria research, Merlin Willcox, of the Research Initiative for Traditional Antimalarial Methods, has yet to be convinced. “The main problem is that policy makers are not open to this idea,” he said in an MIM press release, “because they are trained only in modern medicine. Also, they demand good quality evidence, but it is hard to find funding for the research needed to produce this evidence.”