Posted on 07/13/2015 7:44:06 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
This may not be the biggest news story of the day, but it must be the most curious. As you are no doubt aware, there is great concern over resistance to conventional antibiotics. “Superbugs” are developing that are not easily killed with known medicines. So someone at the University of Nottingham, in England, thought to try an ancient remedy: a salve for eye infections found in Bald’s Leechbook, a 10th century Saxon volume in the British Library. The results were surprising:
A one thousand year old Anglo-Saxon remedy for eye infections which originates from a manuscript in the British Library has been found to kill the modern-day superbug MRSA in an unusual research collaboration at The University of Nottingham.
Dr Christina Lee, an Anglo-Saxon expert from the School of English has enlisted the help of microbiologists from the University’s Centre for Biomolecular Sciences to recreate a 10th century potion for eye infections from Bald’s Leechbook, an Old English leatherbound volume in the British Library, to see if it really works as an antibacterial remedy. The Leechbook is widely thought of as one of the earliest known medical textbooks and contains Anglo-Saxon medical advice and recipes for medicines, salves and treatments.
Early results on the “potion”, tested in vitro at Nottingham and backed up by mouse model tests at a university in the United States, are, in the words of the US collaborator, “astonishing”. The solution has had remarkable effects on Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) which is one of the most antibiotic-resistant bugs costing modern health services billions.
So what exactly is the potion? It doesn’t contain eye of newt, but close:
The recipe calls for two species of Allium (garlic and onion or leek), wine and oxgall (bile from a cow’s stomach). It describes a very specific method of making the topical solution including the use of a brass vessel to brew it in, a straining to purify it and an instruction to leave the mixture for nine days before use.
There is much more at the link, also here:
“[W]e found that Bald’s eyesalve is incredibly potent as an anti-Staphylococcal antibiotic in this context,” Harrison said.
“We were going from a mature, established population of a few billion cells, all stuck together in this highly protected biofilm coat, to really just a few thousand cells left alive. This is a massive, massive killing ability.”
This is all via Dr. Judith Curry’s excellent web site.
Sometimes the cure is worse than the illness.
Drink up.
MMM, mmm, oxgall.
The vessel with the pestle holds the brew that is true.
if it worked back then why not try it today? People were smarter in my opinion back then going back to the Vikings who could sail and build ships to the Egyptians, to the Saxons etc.
Today we have men who could not even change a light bulb and are afraid of getting their nails dirty while they wear spandex and a helmet to ride a bicycle
straining to purify it
Straining to purify. Got it.
I don’t care what anyone says, this kind of stuff didn’t just ‘get invented’ by accident.
And heck, if it ends Staff Infections, it’s great in my book.
We forget the old wisdom at our peril.
People forget that even by Greek and Roman times, medicinal remedies and salves and tonics had gone through hundreds of years of development and refinement by countless individuals, and that if something was important enough to be written down by the few scribes available in a society like England of 900’s, it was probably worth remembering.
no, no, no,... the pellet with the poison is in the vessel with the pestle- the chalice from the palace holds the brew that is true.
Manuka Honey can kill mrsa, and so can oil of oregano.
While eating his garlic and onion Aethelwald bellowed, “Ox gall! Bring me a tankard of ox gall!”
true
We need to get a copy of the book in English.
no, no, no,... the pellet with the poison is in the vessel with the pestle- the chalice from the palace holds the brew that is true.
Reminds me of the story/tale about Thieves spices and oil mixture. Named after the thieves who robbed victims of the plague (gold teeth, etc.) and supposedly never caught the disease themselves....due to the spice mixture they protected themselves with.
The story goes that the thieves were eventually caught, but were told they wouldn’t be jailed if they gave up their secret of not getting the illness.
The pellet with the poison’s in the vessel with the pestle, while the Flagon with the Dragon holds the brew that is true. The chalice with the palace broke.
There's too much mockery in that crockery hiding the brew that is true.
I’d second that, let’s see this book in English.
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