New Scientist: 9th Century Medieval Remedy with Organic Ingredients Kills Superbug MRSA where modern drugs fail – who’da thunk!?
We sure didn’t expect to see this on the front of New Scientist today, but low and behold – when Western medicine lets us down it’s no surprise that we go back to our roots (no pun intended) to kill the superbug MRSA.
MRSA Superbug
From the groundbreaking article in New Scientist:
Take cropleek and garlic, of both equal quantities, pound them well together… take wine and bullocks gall, mix with the leek… let it stand nine days in the brass vessel…
So goes a thousand-year-old Anglo Saxon recipe to vanquish a stye, an infected eyelash follicle.
The medieval medics might have been on to something. A modern-day recreation of this remedy seems to alleviate infections caused by the bacteria that are usually responsible for styes. The work might ultimately help create drugs for hard-to-treat skin infections.
The project was born when a microbiologist at the University of Nottingham, UK, got talking to an Anglo Saxon scholar. They decided to test a recipe from an Old English medical compendium called Bald’s Leechbook, housed in the British Library.
They even used organic wine in the mix…. The article goes on to say:
Sourcing authentic ingredients was a major challenge, says Freya Harrison, the microbiologist. They had to hope for the best with the leeks and garlic because modern crop varieties are likely to be quite different to ancient ones – even those branded as heritage. For the wine they used an organic vintage from a historic English vineyard.
And yes, even I was surprised to see New Scientist quoting doctors about organic holistic ancient remedies working synergistically to kill a superbug where modern medicines have failed us:
Unexpectedly, the ingredients had little effect unless they were all brought together. “The big challenge is trying to find out why that combination works,” says Steve Diggle, another of the researchers. Do the components work in synergy or do they trigger the formation of new potent compounds?
They also mention that the doctors recommend you do not to try this at home, but admit that modern drugs are often derived from ancient Chinese medicines, and medieval medicines, though it sounds like they might have better luck with the organic original than some modern day synthetic version.
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