At a citrus growers’ meeting in Highlands County, Florida, Tanishka Aglave brought an unlikely starting point for an HLB treatment: Indian curry leaves. Her investigation of the plant’s potential led to a new product, according to the report on her research.
Aglave presented her work at the Highlands County Citrus Growers Association’s annual meeting in 2025. The route from a high school research project to a product is unusual; the disease it addresses is not. HLB remains a serious concern for citrus growers, and a new treatment naturally invites the next question: what, exactly, has been shown?
A leaf-based trunk injection
Rather than inject infected trees with oxytetracycline, the standard HLB treatment described in the account, Aglave tested a curry-leaf extract delivered by trunk injection. That is the central change in the approach she presented: a different substance, applied through a familiar route.
The source identifies the product as the outcome of her research, but the information available here does not specify its formulation, dose, or application directions. It also does not provide treatment results that would let growers compare performance with existing approaches.
From research lead to grove decision
California has its own reason to follow HLB research: the USDA expanded the quarantined area around Murrieta by 155 square miles in October 2026. That action gives the disease a local regulatory footprint, though it does not establish that Aglave’s product has been tested or authorized for California use. APHIS’s quarantine expansion is a separate development.
A promising research path and a grove-ready treatment are different things. For California operations, the useful next evidence would be field performance, clear application directions, and confirmation that the product can be used under California requirements.
Curry leaves make a memorable origin story. The harder part, as ever, is translating a treatment idea into results that hold up in a commercial grove.