Alice Ball developed the first successful injectable treatment for leprosy from chaulmoogra oil.
In 1915, Ball was a chemist at the College of Hawaii. She developed a method for chemically modifying the fatty acids in chaulmoogra oil so they could be suspended in water and injected. Earlier preparations were difficult to use and often caused severe side effects.
The resulting treatment became known as the Ball Method and was used for years in leprosy hospitals. It helped patients before the arrival of modern antibiotics and represented an important improvement in care.
Ball died in 1916, at only 24, before publishing her findings. University president Arthur L. Dean continued the work and received much of the early credit, but later historical research restored Ball’s role and name to the treatment.