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She published “Benzoylations in Ether Solution,” in the prestigious J Am Chem Soc with her #pharmacy instructor. She was offered many scholarships & opted to return to Hawaii to pursue her chemistry MSc investigating the active principle of Piper methysticum. She was both 1st woman & 1st Black graduate with a master’s degree from U Hawai’i. She became the 1st Black chemistry prof at the school.⁠
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Dr. Harry T. Hollmann of Kalihi Hospital in Hawai’i & acting director of Kalihi leprosy clinic, 2/

was unsatisfied with using chaulmoogra oil in its natural form to treat patients & wanted to isolate the active ingredients. He recruited Ball to help. Within a year, she was able to do what all had been unable to do for centuries. She isolated active ingredients & converted them to a form which could be circulated in the body. This breakthrough was so significant, she was offered an instructor position.⁠
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Tragically, Ball became ill during her research & returned to Seattle for treatment. 3/

She may have been exposed to chlorine gas while demonstrating the use of a gas mask in case of attack (as WWI was raging), but the cause of her death is unknown & she had yet to publish.⁠
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The chemist & president of U Hawaii, Arthur L. Dean completed & published her study -calling it the “Dean Method”! Dr. Hollmann objected & documented how the technique should be the “Ball Method”. Despite Hollmann’s efforts Ball’s achievements did not receive much recognition 4/5

until historians highlighted her work in the 70s. Almost 90 years after her discovery, the U Hawaii finally recognized her work with a plaque on the school’s lone chaulmoogra tree in 2000, & the Lieutenant Governor declared February 29 “Alice Ball Day,” now celebrated every 4 years.

https://minouette.etsy.com/listing/578429732

Today we mark Alice Ball Day.

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