#ball method

Alice Ball, a pioneering black chemist who developed the first effective treatment for leprosy. She died in 1916 at the age of 24.

“Ball’s critical innovation was developing a method to chemically modify chaulmoogra oil’s fatty acids into ethyl esters, making the compound water-soluble and suitable for injection. This process, later called the “Ball Method,” allowed the drug to be absorbed into the bloodstream safely and efficiently, overcoming the problems that had prevented earlier use. By 1920, health authorities in Hawaiʻi reported that many patients who received the Ball Method were able to return home, rather than remain in lifelong quarantine. For more than two decades, the Ball Method was the standard treatment for leprosy worldwide.

“Ball died unexpectedly in 1916 at age 24 before she could publish her findings. After her death, others took credit for her work, but later scholarship and institutional recognition restored her legacy. Today, the Ball Method itself is medically obsolete, replaced by modern multidrug therapy; however, the technique marked a turning point between early botanical medicine and modern pharmaceutical chemistry and remains historically significant. Though her life was brief, her innovation dramatically changed medical outcomes and restored dignity and hope to thousands of patients worldwide.”

One of history's finest chemists, Alice Ball (1892-1916) was a Black woman who developed an incredibly effective treatment for leprosy now known as the "Ball Method."

Born to a middle-class family in Seattle, Washington, Ball studied chemistry and pharmacy at the University of Washington before attending the College of Hawaii to study for a master's degree in chemistry, where she studied the use of native plants in medicine.

Due to her expertise, Ball was asked to research the use of chaulmoogra oil on leprosy. The Hawaiian island of Molokai was, at the time, a 'leper colony' where patients were essentially sent to die. Chaulmoogra oil was the best medicine at the time, but all methods of application had severe problems. At age 23, Ball developed a technique to make the oil injectable.