Lauren Curd and Marna Claassen presenting their poster at the World Congress on Undergraduate Research

Following the completion of their optometry honours research project on castor oil as a topical blepharitis treatment, University of Auckland now-graduated students Marna Claassen, Alice Jackson and Lauren Curd, travelled to Oldenburg, Germany, to present their work at the 2019 World Congress of Undergraduate Research (WCUR).

The topic of their project, supervised by A/Prof Jennifer Craig and Dr Alex Muntz, was first revealed in NZ Optics September 2018 Dry eye special feature. Since then, 28 participants with blepharitis used castor oil on the eyelids of one eye twice daily for four weeks in a prospective, randomised, paired-eye, investigator-masked clinical trial. Significant improvements in lid wiper epitheliopathy, eyelash crusting and other clinical characteristics associated with blepharitis were recorded in the treated eyes compared with the control eyes. Well tolerated by participants, and with no reports of irritation or discomfort, preliminary data suggest that the topical application of castor oil to the eyelids may offer a safe, effective, and natural treatment alternative for blepharitis.