SAINT JOHN, N.B. – A team of researchers in Saint John is looking at a natural way to cure tuberculosis.

Tuberculosis, or TB, has been described by the World Health Organization as “a global emergency”.

UNB associate professor Dr. Christopher Gray is working on the project and says a lot of the drugs we use today come from natural sources.

“If you think about penicillin, morphine, which came from poppies. And one of the best cancer drugs we have comes from a tree. So a lot of the medicines we currently prescribe are coming from natural products originally.”

The team is looking at a tea made with cow parsnip used by the Eskasoni First Nation.

Gray says some compounds found in the fungus of cow parsnip are similar to those in current TB antibiotics.