Wow!
Medieval garlic ‘potion’ kills MRSA, researchers find
Recipe in 1,000-year-old manuscript yields ‘astonishing’ results in treating superbug
A garlic-based “potion” listed in a 1,000-year-old Anglo-Saxon manuscript has been found to kill off the MRSA superbug.
Microbiologists at the University of Nottingham say early trials of the 10th century remedy, which also contains cow bile, have yielded “astonishing” results.
The apparently homespun recipe, originally concocted as a treatment for eye infections, was spotted in a copy of Bald’s Leechbook, a medieval medical text held at the British Library.
In what experts from the university’s school of English and centre for biomolecular sciences acknowledge is an unusual research collaboration, tests have been conducted using a mixture of oxgall, wine and two species of allium - garlic, onion or leek.
Initial results of trials conducted at the University of Nottingham and at Texas Tech University show that the eye salve, while not 100 per cent effective, is “as good, if not better” than conventional antibiotics at tackling MRSA.
Data gathered during the testing shows that the mixture kills up to 90 per cent of MRSA bacteria.
Scientists believe its effectiveness is due to the combination of ingredients and “brewing” methods used in Anglo-Saxon times.
Dr Harrison said: “We thought that Bald’s eye salve might show a small amount of antibiotic activity, because each of the ingredients has been shown by other researchers to have some effect on [MRSA] bacteria in the lab.
“But we were absolutely blown away by just how effective the combination of ingredients was.
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