Researchers look to the past for new antibiotics
MedpageToday
by MedPage Today Staff April 19, 2017
A group of researchers known as the “ancientbiotics team” are turning to the Middle Ages to find new leads for treating infections as more and more pathogens become antibiotic resistant, according to Scientific American.
They are compiling a database of medieval recipes for medicines, such as a 1,000-year-old recipe for eye salve to treat a stye that contains wine, garlic, onion, and oxgall. According to the original source, Bald’s Leechbook, the mixture must stand for nine nights in a brass vessel.
This recipe turned out to have potent antistaphylococcal properties, killing Staphylococcus aureus biofilms in an in vitro model and effectively treating multi-drug resistant Staphylococcus aureus in mice.