Scientists studying an ancient recipe for a 1,000-year-old treatment for eye infections may have discovered a cure for the modern superbug Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA.
The potion includes garlic, onion or leek, wine, and
bile from a cow's stomach, USA Today reported.
"We followed the recipe as closely as we could," Christina Lee, an expert on Anglo-Saxon history at the University of Nottingham, told USA Today. "The ingredients don't work on their own — it isn't a single one, but the combination of ingredients that works."
Lee teamed up with microbiologists to test the recipe, finding that the treatment killed up to 90 percent of MRSA in infected mice. MRSA is resistant to conventional antibiotics.
"We were absolutely blown away by just how effective the combination of ingredients was,"
Freya Harrison said, according to the BBC.
The discovery suggests that medieval physicians may have emphasized observation and experimentation in their work, much like the modern scientific method.
“We believe modern research into disease can benefit from past responses and knowledge, which is largely contained in non-scientific writings,”
Lee said, according to The Telegraph. “But the potential of these texts to contribute to addressing the challenges cannot be understood without the combined expertise of both the arts and science.”
Twitter users seemed fascinated.
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