Traditional Anglo-Saxon Medicine

Wednesday, April 1st, 2015

A thousand-year-old medieval remedy for eye infections, from Bald’s Leechbook, a leatherbound Old English manuscript kept in the British Library, really works:

Anglo-Saxon expert Dr Christina Lee, from the School of English, at Nottingham University, recreated the 10th century potion to see if it really worked as an antibacterial remedy.

The ‘eyesalve’ recipe calls for two species of Allium (garlic and onion or leek), wine and oxgall (bile from a cow’s stomach).

It describes a very specific method of making the topical solution including the use of a brass vessel to brew it, a strainer to purify it and an instruction to leave the mixture for nine days before use.

None of the experts really expected the concoction to work. But when it was tested, microbiologists were amazed to find that not only did the salve clear up styes, but it also tackled the deadly superbug MRSA, which is resistant to many antibiotics.

Mainstream medicine needs to take Traditional Anglo-Saxon Medicine seriously, ‘twould seem.

Comments

  1. Alrenous says:

    Well, you know. Proggies.

    That said, this sounds like a super-fun thing to put in your eye. I can barely give myself regular drops.

Leave a Reply