[MR] History Blog: 10th C. Anglo-Saxon Eye Salve Really Works

[Dexter Guptill]

Here's the details on the new material that Historyblog mentions:

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-69273-8

On Thu, Jul 30, 2020 at 9:28 AM Garth Groff and Sally Sanford via Atlantia <
atlantia at seahorse.atlantia.sca.org> wrote:

> Noble Friends,
>
> Maybe some medieval cures weren't so absurd as they seem to us today. An
> Anglo-Saxon eye salve from the 10th century has been found by modern
> researchers at Nottingham University to be hell on various types of
> otherwise-resistant bacteria. The recipe comes from *Bald's Leechbook*,
> written around 950 CE.
>
> The mixture of onion, garlic, wine and bovine bile salts turned out to be a
> powerful antibiotic that even worked on MRSA. Although some of the
> ingredients did have properties by themselves, all four were needed to make
> a truly effective potion.
>
> Before you ask if it would work against the current plague, the
> History Blog does not claim so, and the scholarly paper which the article
> quotes was written some time ago. In any case, Bald's salve is an
> antibacterial, not an antiviral.
>
> The full story is found at http://www.thehistoryblog.com/archives/59203 .
>
> Yours Aye,
>
>
> Mungo Napier, Laird of Mallard Lodge  🦆
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-- 
Dex
http://www.3fgburner.net

"Maxim 37: There is no overkill. There is only 'Open Fire', and 'I need to
reload'. " http://www.schlockmercenary.com