In 2025, high school student Tanishka Aglave regaled the Highlands County Citrus Growers Association (HCCGA) annual meeting with a discussion of her prize-winning investigation into a natural alternative treatment for HLB. Instead of using the standard HLB treatment oxytetracycline (OTC) as a trunk injection, she injected HLB-infected trees with an extract from the Indian curry leaf plant. She reported that the high rate of curry extract performed closely to OTC in her trials.
Aglave, now a senior at Strawberry Crest High School’s International Baccalaureate program in Tampa, has since commercialized her product and created a business to market it. She recently authored an article about her experience titled “From Our Family’s Grove to C-Cure: My Journey in Citrus Research.”
Aglave, daughter of a Florida citrus grower, reported that she wanted to help growers find a method to sustainably manage HLB and hopefully revive the Florida citrus industry.
“What began as a personal concern for our family’s trees gradually became a research project — and eventually, the foundation for C-Cure,” she wrote.
While researching HLB through scientific literature, Aglave learned that the Indian curry-leaf plant belongs to the same family as citrus. But studies suggested that HLB-spreading Asian citrus psyllids could become non-infective after feeding on the plant.
“This suggested that the plant might contain compounds that either interfere with disease transmission or neutralize the bacteria,” Aglave stated.
She focused her research on using curry leaf extract as a novel treatment for HLB, identifying potential therapeutic compounds, and engineering tools to diagnose and improve the efficacy of her treatment.
Aglave found that conventional trunk-injection syringes leaked and injured the trunks of young citrus trees.
“While waiting several months for the biological results of my greenhouse trials, I designed and tested multiple 3D-printed prototypes until I developed a smaller, non-pressurized infusion system that delivered the treatment more effectively,” she wrote.
As the project developed, Aglave investigated a thermal-therapy system to support treatment uptake and developed a computer-vision application to help growers assess disease severity from photographs.
“I wanted to ensure they had an accessible tool to monitor the efficacy of my treatment and the health of their grove,” she stated.
According to Aglave, her development of C-Cure grew out of her goal of bringing the research beyond the laboratory and into the hands of growers.
“I hope this work contributes not only to healthier trees but also to stronger farming communities and a more sustainable agricultural future,” she concluded.
Source: HCCGA
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