Anglo Saxon eye salve 'can kill MRSA superbug'

  • Health
University of Nottingham of University microbiologist Dr Freya Harrison and Dr Steve Diggle with the "potion" Credit: PA Wire

A 10th century eye salve whose ingredients include cow bile and garlic has been found to kill up to 90% of the MRSA superbug.

Researchers found the recipe, originally used to treat eye infections, wasn't 100% effective but was "as good if not better" than conventional antibiotics at tackling the superbug.

Tests were conducted using oxgall, wine and two species of Allium - garlic and onion or leek.

The recipe was discovered in a copy of Bald's Leechbook - a thousand-year-old Anglo Saxon medical text held at the British Library.

The potion was listed in a 1,000-year-old Anglo Saxon manuscript Credit: PA Wire

Microbiologist Dr Freya Harrison led lab work to test the remedy at the University of Nottingham with Dr Steve Diggle and research associate Dr Aled Roberts.

Dr Harrison said: "We thought that Bald's eye salve might show a small amount of antibiotic activity, because each of the ingredients has been shown by other researchers to have some effect on bacteria in the lab.

"But we were absolutely blown away by just how effective the combination of ingredients was.

"We tested it in difficult conditions too - we let our artificial 'infections' grow into dense, mature populations called biofilms, where the individual cells bunch together and make a sticky coating that makes it hard for antibiotics to reach them.

"But unlike many modern antibiotics, Bald's eye salve has the power to breach these defences."