A 1,000-year-old Anglo-Saxon salve of onion, garlic, and part of a cow’s stomach could potentially eradicate the MRSA superbug problem.
An Anglo-Saxon Expert, Christina Lee, of the University of Nottingham, spotted the eye infection remedy in a medical volume called Bald’s Leechbook that was held in the British Library in London. According to CBS News, it is one of the earliest known textbooks in medicine dating back to the 10th Century.
When they tested the mixture to the superbug Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureu (MRSA) in lab-cultured Petri dishes and on the infected wounds of mice, they found that it killed 999 out of 1,000 bacterial cells.
“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,” says Freya Harrison, one of the lead Nottingham researchers, in a statement. “But we were absolutely blown away by just how effective the combination of ingredients was.”
Lee and her team were “astonished” as they studied the results of their experiments. She believes that modern research can learn more from past knowledge and findings that are found in old world tomes and medical books.
“When we built this recipe in the lab I didn’t really expect it to actually do anything,” microbiologist Steve Diggle said, noted CBS. “When we found that it could actually disrupt and kill cells in S. aureus biofilms, I was genuinely amazed. Biofilms are naturally antibiotic resistant and difficult to treat so this was a great result.”
The group of researchers recreated the 10th century concoction according to its original instructions. The text was translated from Old English, and in the recipe they made use of two species of Allium (garlic and onion or leek), wine, and bile from a cow’s stomach. They let the potion brew in a brass pot, then strained through a cloth, and left to sit for nine days, according to ABC News.
The AncientBiotics team at the University of Nottingham is currently looking for more funding to further their research. The preliminary study was presented at the conference of the Social for General Microbiology in Birmingham in England last Wednesday.
According to the U.S. CDC, the MRSA has become a major problem in the healthcare industry. It affects around 90,000 Americans yearly and has already costed billions of dollars. The MRSA kills off around 20,000 people each year.
The end of doctors:
Hospital admissions plummeted at Vidant Health-operated facilities after it started remotely monitoring patients suffering from heart failure, diabetes and high blood pressure. Patients at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center send doctors pictures of their wounds from offsite in order to find out if they need antibiotics. And a patient at the hospital had his blood-pressure medication adjusted after he wirelessly sent the doctors biometrics from his home.
Such stories, which were just chronicled in The Wall Street Journal, are becoming increasingly common. Remote monitoring can empower patients and lead to more fine-tuning of care while saving hospitals money and helping hospitals meet their Affordable Care Act (ACA) goals, like reducing hospitals readmissions (or else facing a reduction in Medicare reimbursement).
Sales of remote-monitoring devices are expected to top $32 billion this year, according to Market Research Group, and will grow at a compounded annual growth rate of 9.2% between 2014 and 2019.