Chicken soup really could boost the health, according to a new study showing traditional broths may combat malaria.

The humble fare has long been offered to those battling flu and fevers, thanks to a belief in its powers of restoration.

More than 60 homemade broths brought in by an ethnically diverse group of children from a London primary school were found to interrupt the life cycle of the most deadly of the malarial parasites.

A range of soups, ranging from vegetable to beef and chicken, were found to have the power to interrupt the life cycle of Plasmodium falciparum, which causes 99 per cent of deaths from malaria and is transmitted through infected mosquitos.

The study into home remedies was prompted by the development of an antimalarial drug called artemesin in recent years.

It originates from the plant qinghao, used in traditional Chinese herbal medicine to treat fever.