Potential antibiotic alternative found in 1,000-year-old manuscript
The treatment, known as Bald's eyesalve, is simple compared to modern medicine, and is made from onion, garlic, wine and bile salts.
By AARON REICHColorful of tablets and capsules pill in blister packaging arranged with beautiful pattern with flare light. Pharmaceutical industry concept. Pharmacy drugstore. Antibiotic drug resistance(photo credit: INGIMAGE)
A 1,000-year-old natural remedy could be the alternative to antibiotics scientists have been looking for, CNN reported.The treatment, known as Bald's eyesalve, is simple compared to modern medicine, and is simply made from onion, garlic, wine and bile salts. It was often used in Anglo-Saxon times to treat eye sty infections. However, new research, published in the academic journal Scientific Reports, has revealed it has potential to combat diabetic foot and leg infections, as well as other biofilm infections– infections resistant to antibiotics."This is the real detailed hard slog of finding out more information and seeing if it really could be developed into something clinically useful," said Freya Harrison, a microbiologist at the School of Life Sciences at the University of Warwick in the UK and an author of the study, according to CNN."We think it has particular promise for treating diabetic foot infections. They are the ultimate, super-resistant biofilm infection. They are a huge health and economic burden. They really can become untreatable."There's a high risk that these diabetic foot ulcers are completely resistant to any antibiotic treatment. Then there's a risk of a person developing sepsis... and people end up having their foot or lower leg amputated."The recipe for this remedy was found in Bald's Leechbook, one of the earliest known medical texts, which is currently housed in the British Library.It may be surprising that such an old text could have such effective knowledge, but it isn't without precedence. The malaria treatment drug artemisin, which is derived from Wormwood, was found by Tu Youyou, a Chinese researcher who found it in ancient texts."When you read it as a microbiologist, you think that it's got to do something because every ingredient in it has some antibacterial activity when you test it in a test tube. It seemed like a sensible one to put together," Harrison said, who started this project after hearing about the book by chance."It's also very clearly targeted to a bacterial infection from the description of the symptoms in the book."
If this proves effective, it could serve as the antibiotic alternative scientists have been looking for. Antibiotics, while effective often, are problematic as bacteria grows resistant to them.According to the study, biofilm infections cost over $1.3 billion in the UK alone, and many scientists believe that drug resistance will lead to 10 million deaths annually by 2050, CNN reported.This has led to a wide range of new potential avenues, including everyday substances like honey and more obscure sources like komodo dragon blood.Bald's eyesalve looks promising, but further tests have been delayed due to the coronavirus pandemic. However, Harrison hopes to continue in 2021."In the next year we hope to have some idea of the chemistry, a better idea of the safety, and then it would be a case of saying is it actually effective but I'm sure you're aware this work does take a long time," Harrison said, according to CNN."It's important to recognize that most exciting-looking, potential anti-microbials ultimately fail to translate into a product. So we have to be very realistic and do a lot of detailed work to see if it will be useful."
