At the Society for General Microbiology Annual Conference (March 30–April 2, 2015), Harrison et al presented a paper describing their experience with a 1000-year-old antimicrobial remedy with antistaphylococcal activity (S19We1006). The unique team of investigators—consisting of an expert in Viking studies and 3 microbiologists from the University of Nottingham, England, and another microbiologist who performs mouse model studies from Texas Tech University (Lubbock, Texas)—pooled their talents to reconstruct and test an ancient recipe for treating eyelash follicle infection. The potion not only killed methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) grown in established biofilms but also performed as good, if not better, than the conventional antibiotics on MRSA-infected skin wounds in mice.
“Take cropleek and garlic, of both equal quantities, pound them well together . . . take wine and bullocks gall, mix with the leek . . . let it stand 9 days in the brass vessel” is an excerpt of the recipe for treatment of a sty from the 9th century Anglo-Saxon text Bald’s Leechbook (translated from Old English). The modern day chefs cooked their potion using: (1) 2 Allium species (equal amounts of garlic and either leek or onion, finely chopped and crushed in a mortar for 2 minutes), (2) wine (add 25 mL [0.87 fl oz] of an organic vintage from a historic English vineyard near Glastonbury), (3) bullock gall (dissolve bile from a cow’s stomach in distilled water), and (4) brass (glass bottles with squares of brass sheets immersed in the mixture were used because a brass vessel would be not only hard to sterilize but also expensive). After brewing (in the “brass vessel”), the solution was purified by straining it and left to chill at 4oC for 9 days before the mixture was used.
What’s the issue?
Advances in technology provide the opportunity to create new medical treatments. However, efficacious therapies may remain hidden in ancient texts, waiting to be discovered. Historic Chinese literature has been the source for modern day drugs such as artemisinin for Plasmodium falciparum malaria. The ancient recipe in Bald’s Leechbook may be the next major advance in the topical management of MRSA. I anticipate, in the future, that physicians may be prescribing “Bald’s potion” to treat impetigo. What do you think?
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Suggested Readings
- AncientBiotics—a medieval remedy for modern day superbugs [news release]? United Kingdom: The University of Nottingham; March 30, 2015. http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/news/pressreleases/2015/march/ancientbiotics---a-medieval-remedy-for-modern-day-superbugs.aspx. Accessed August 12, 2015.
- Feilden T. 1,000-year-old onion and garlic eye remedy kills MRSA. BBC News. March 30, 2015. http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-nottinghamshire-32117815. Accessed August 12, 2015.
- Wilson C. Anglo-Saxon remedy kills hospital superbug MRSA. New Scientist. March 30, 2015. http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn27263-anglosaxon-remedy-kills-hospital-superbug-mrsa.html#.VTPpsqazDzl. Accessed August 12, 2015.