Medieval remedy for MRSA germs

Medieval recipe effective against multi-drug resistant hospital germs

07/04/2015

Multidrug-resistant MRSA clinical pathogens can be successfully killed with the help of a medieval recipe, according to a recent study at the University of Nottingham. Researchers have recreated a 1000-year-old Anglo-Saxon eye ophthalmic remedy using a British Library manuscript and scrutinized its antibacterial properties.

The researchers from the University of Nottingham used the information in one of the oldest surviving medical textbooks - the „Bald's Leechbook“ - from the British Library to create a medieval eye tincture of ingredients such as garlic, leek, ox gall and wine. They then tested their antibacterial effect. They conclude that the tincture produced has remarkable effects on multidrug-resistant bacteria of the genus Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). Here it becomes clear that many traditional healing methods are wrongly forgotten today.

Medieval recipe brewed
The philologist Dr. Christina Lee and microbiologist dr. Freya Harrison, of the University of Nottingham, has devoted himself to the recipe for a special eye tincture in the tenth-century medical textbook in the current study, but the translation of each ingredient has been quite difficult. Afterwards, the scientists mixed the medieval tincture while keeping the specifications from the various ingredients as closely as possible. For nine days, they allowed the brew to ferment, which, however, could not be done in a brass kettle as intended for reasons of sterility, so that a brass plate was additionally placed in a glass jar.

After nine days the healing potion was sterile
According to the researchers, after nine days, the mixture of organic wine, leeks and garlic, ox gall and a brass plate was sterile, although the bacteria added several of the bacteria to the jar. The scientists then examined the effect of the medieval „potion“ in cell cultures and performed further tests in a mouse model at a university in the USA. The tincture was applied to skin areas of rodents infected with the MRSA germs. Although the germs are resistant to most common antibiotics and can be treated accordingly difficult, showed in the current experiment in the infected animals after use of the medieval remedy, a significant decline in colonization. According to Dr. Harrison was impressed by the effect of the tincture and around 90 percent of the bacteria had been killed.

Effect of the medieval healing potion not finally clarified
Why the different ingredients of the medieval remedy combined in such a strong effect against the multidrug-resistant clinical germs unfold, so far not been conclusively clarified, but this seems to be achievable only under certain conditions. So the newspaper reports „The standard“ by researcher Michael Drout of the Wheaton Collage, Norton, Massachusetts, USA in 2005, who also brewed the medieval healing potion. At that time the bacteria survived in the experiments. Perhaps this is due to the fact that the tincture is not „in vivo“ cited on the skin of a living organism but only in cell cultures „The standard“ the doctor. Further research must therefore clarify what the effect of the medieval remedy actually is. (Fp)