- Onions and garlic are amazing when used for colds, influenza, and sinusitis.
A 1,000-year-old treatment for eye infections could hold the key to killing antibiotic-resistant superbugs, experts have said.
Scientists recreated a 9th Century Anglo-Saxon remedy using onion, garlic and part of a cow's stomach.
They were "astonished" to find it almost completely wiped out methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus, otherwise known as MRSA.
Their findings will be presented at a national microbiology conference.
The remedy was found in Bald's Leechbook - an old English manuscript containing instructions on various treatments held in the British Library.
Anglo-Saxon expert Dr Christina Lee, from the University of Nottingham, translated the recipe for an "eye salve", which includes garlic, onion or leeks, wine and cow bile.
Experts from the university's microbiology team recreated the remedy and then tested it on large cultures of MRSA.
Analysis
Tom Feilden, science editor Today Programme
The leechbook is one of the earliest examples of what might loosely be called a medical textbook
It seems Anglo-Saxon physicians may actually have practised something pretty close to the modern scientific method, with its emphasis on observation and experimentation.
Bald's Leechbook could hold some important lessons for our modern day battle with anti-microbial resistance.
In each case, they tested the individual ingredients against the bacteria, as well as the remedy and a control solution.
They found the remedy killed up to 90% of MRSA bacteria and believe it is the effect of the recipe rather than one single ingredient.
Dr Freya Harrison said the team thought the eye salve might show a "small amount of antibiotic activity".
"But we were absolutely blown away by just how effective the combination of ingredients was," she said.
Dr Lee said there are many similar medieval books with treatments for what appear to be bacterial infections.
She said this could suggest people were carrying out detailed scientific studies centuries before bacteria were discovered.
The team's findings will be presented at the Annual Conference of the Society for General Microbiology, in Birmingham.
Bald's eye salve
Equal amounts of garlic and another allium (onion or leek), finely chopped and crushed in a mortar for two minutes.
Add 25ml (0.87 fl oz) of English wine - taken from a historic vineyard near Glastonbury.
Dissolve bovine salts in distilled water, add and then keep chilled for nine days at 4C.
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Thanks Pet Rock. Standard treatment for infection with MRSA includes IV piggy-back medications (which are IV pushed at a slow rate). These standard medications include Vancomycin and additional IV medications (depending on the strain identified via microscope, and obtained by growth in culture medium), such as Pipericillin and Gentamycin. And the treatment costs are in excess of $10,000, and it will not be covered by insurance if IV drug abuse is the reason for the infection (which is what many MRSA infections are at the charity hospital I work. You always know when a major dope shipment hits Austin by the many numerous drug addicts getting admitted for cellulitis (with occasional MRSA infection) and never getting sufficient narcotic pain medication for their pain issues (since their tolerance for narcotics is so high).
Thank you Obama and Bush, for the Afghanistan heroin (which was outlawed by the Taliban. Note that the Taliban would cut your head off if you were caught growing opium poppies. NOW WHO'S THE REAL TERRORIST????????????) .
$10,00 for treatment? I'll bet these types of remedies begin appearing more often in the main stream media as 'obamacre' unravels
I don't want to live in a decrepit 100 year old atomic sack! unless it can be manipulated mysteriously to rejuvenate to around 55-35 would be better
I'm sure it can be done-I had an unbelievable experience with my Goddess Quan Yin-
I don't want to live in this body to 100 unless it can be rejuvenated to stay around 55-no need, rather go to the afterlife
I've used this for the flu but boiled onions and garlic in water-4 med. onions to 2 quarts of water with one clove garlic crushed - boil until mixture sweetens ( may be even more affective cooking on low heat to prevent losing the nutrients in too much steam)then add a little lemon and honey -drink as much as you can before going to sleep -you may wake up in a drenching sweat and the next day most of the infection is gone-flu lasts less then half the time-usually about 5 days for the flu, right?-colds are gone almost overnight-
the article says the report will be out soon showing how the mixture reacts to the bacteria-the molecules must attach to the bacteria all at once and drain it's positive charge-even bacteria are made of atoms--are physical bodies turn to dusty atoms that some may become bacteria -weird world