British researchers say a stomach-churning mixture of mashed-up garlic, wine and stomach bile used to treat eye infections over 1,000 years ago might help in killing off today's antibiotic-resistant superbugs.

The British Library holds one of the oldest medical textbooks, a leather-bound volume called Bald's Leechbook, which contains a formula for an "eye salve" from the 10th century. Bald's Leechbook was written in Old English.

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Christina Lee, an expert on Anglo-Saxons from the School of English at the University of Nottingham, translated a manuscript on recipes using garlic when she was doing research on garlic's potential antibiotic effectiveness.

Lee enlisted the help of microbiologists from the university's Centre for Biomolecular Sciences to recreate one of the recipes for treating styes, those annoying eyelash follicle infections. It was rather easy as the manuscript was precise about the ratio and combination of ingredients.

The researchers discovered the mixture was highly effective at wiping out MRSA, or methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus, a bacterial strain that causes thousands of hospital-acquired infections. In fact, the mixture performed as well, if not better, than conventional antibiotics.

The recipe had to stand for nine days before moving to the next stage of the cooking: straining the mix through a cloth. Steven Diggle, an associated professor of sociomicrobiology, explained how the most difficult part of recreating it accurately was finding original wine from the 9th century, as old as the book itself.

At the end of the cooking process, the researchers tested the solution against different cultures of MRSA, which is known to be resistant to all types of currently used antibiotic treatment. They had little hope, but the experiment met with great results.

Microbiologist Dr. Freya Harrison said the finding is an important one given the growth of antibiotic resistance and the lack of any new antimicrobial agents on the horizon.

The team is now looking for more funding to extend this interesting area of research, looking to the past to find modern weapons against our most difficult pathogens.

TagsMedieval Remedy for Eye Treatment Can Kill MRSA Superbug, Medieval Remedy, garlic, bile, MRSA Superbug, Medieval Remedy MRSA Superbug, Bald’s Leechbook, antibiotic-resistant superbugs