Anglo-Saxon potion could make MRSA thing of past

[Super Nova]

Wow. those druids knew what they were doing.

I wonder how many things from the past we will find. Today we think our manmade or complex creations will be superior to anything the ancients have come up with by observing and utilising what nature provided.



Anglo-Saxon potion could make MRSA thing of past

As antibiotics falter in the battle against superbugs, doctors may have one last hope in the fight to save modern medicine: garlic, organic Glastonbury wine and lashings of ox bile.

A 1,200-year-old Anglo-Saxon text, Bald’s Leechbook, has provided an “astonishingly” effective remedy for killing MRSA, offering hope that it could one day become a viable treatment — and causing scientists to wonder what other treasures might be hidden in the medical knowledge of the past.

The discovery emerged from a historical battle re-enactment. Freya Harrison, a microbiologist at the University of Nottingham, got to know her medievalist colleagues through a desire to add verisimilitude to weekend Viking warfare. They tested a 9th-century remedy for a stye thought likely to be caused by the staphylococcus bacterium.

“We thought that Bald’s eyesalve 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,” Dr Harrison said.

“Copper and bile salts can kill bacteria, and the garlic family of plants make chemicals that interfere with the bacteria’s ability to damage infected tissues. But we were absolutely blown away by just how effective the combination of ingredients was.”

Amazed by the obliteration of MRSA (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus) in lab tests, they sent the potion to colleagues in the US to test on mice. Kendra Rumbaugh, of Texas Tech University, said: “This ‘ancient remedy’ performed as good if not better than the conventional antibiotics we used.”

Dr Harrison hopes that further tests will help produce a compound that could be tested on humans.

The research will be presented tomorrow at the annual conference of the Society for General Microbiology in Birmingham, although Christina Lee, of Nottingham’s Institute for Medieval Research, said: “We didn’t want to bring it out on April 1st because people would have thought it was a joke.”

http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/health/ne ... 397441.ece

[boxy]

Wow. those druids knew what they were doing.

You find this surprising? Humans have a gift for finding what is successful, and repeating it. And if something better comes along, changing to that (eventually).

I would find it amazing if the wisdom of "wise men", of any time, were found to be totally without foundation.

[AiA in Atlanta]

It can't be patented and sold at an incredibly high margin. These researchers are in danger of destroying their careers.

[Super Nova]

It can't be patented and sold at an incredibly high margin. These researchers are in danger of destroying their careers.

They could patent it I would have thought. It is a discovery surely where they patent the process and the resulting compounds. This is the first step in exploring these chemicals.

[Super Nova]

Wow. those druids knew what they were doing.

You find this surprising? Humans have a gift for finding what is successful, and repeating it. And if something better comes along, changing to that (eventually).

I would find it amazing if the wisdom of "wise men", of any time, were found to be totally without foundation.

I find it a little surprising that it is so much more effective than our modern science has discovered.

It shows we have moved too far away from what nature has provided and we now think we have to engineer a solution rather than look to see if nature has solved the problem somewhere for us.

I think we should pay more attention to what the ancients had observed.

I think 4 and 2 hundred years ago we did as the west went off to explore the planet. Now I don't think we do so much.

[AiA in Atlanta]

It can't be patented and sold at an incredibly high margin. These researchers are in danger of destroying their careers.

They could patent it I would have thought. It is a discovery surely where they patent the process and the resulting compounds. This is the first step in exploring these chemicals.

I doubt it can be patented. Naturally occurring substances (and plants) cannot. I would imagine this story will all be forgotten.

[Rorschach]

Hasn't stopped the Yanks from trying though has it.

[Super Nova]

It can't be patented and sold at an incredibly high margin. These researchers are in danger of destroying their careers.

They could patent it I would have thought. It is a discovery surely where they patent the process and the resulting compounds. This is the first step in exploring these chemicals.

I doubt it can be patented. Naturally occurring substances (and plants) cannot. I would imagine this story will all be forgotten.

You primarily patent the process to extract and use natures wonders.

You could could patent the process if not the end result of the process. IMO.

[Rorschach]

They tried to patent human genes....

[Super Nova]

They tried to patent human genes....

They did and their patent system allows ideas to be patented even thought they are not fully worked out which is different to the UK and Europe.

However the US does attribute their more flexible/different system to be a success and considering the level of innovation last century from the US... it is hard to disagree... it may not be fair but it has worked for them.