--- title: Medieval Potion Found to Cure MRSA description: A 10th-century medicine that was originally used to treat eye infections may also be able to cure staph infections. canonical: https://time.com/3765138/medieval-remedy-cure-staph-infection/ author: Victor Luckerson article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-03-31T14:21:33.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:59:31.447Z article:section: Health og:title: Medieval Remedy Shows Promise in Curing Staph Infection og:description: It contains onion, garlic, wine and cow stomach bile og:url: https://time.com/3765138/medieval-remedy-cure-staph-infection/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Medieval Remedy Shows Promise in Curing Staph Infection twitter:description: It contains onion, garlic, wine and cow stomach bile twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # 1,000-Year-Old Remedy Could Help Cure Superbug ## Video: The Island That Holds the Secret to Long Life [Watch (HLS stream): The Island That Holds the Secret to Long Life](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/orlnwhNb.m3u8) (7:08)  _Published 2014-05-23. Here's how the people of Ikaria, Greece reach old age_ by [Victor Luckerson](https://time.com/author/victor-luckerson/) ## Victor Luckerson Mar 31, 2015 2:21 PM UTC by [Victor Luckerson](https://time.com/author/victor-luckerson/) ## Victor Luckerson Mar 31, 2015 2:21 PM UTC A 10th-century [medicine](http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/news/pressreleases/2015/march/ancientbiotics---a-medieval-remedy-for-modern-day-superbugs.aspx) that was originally used to treat eye infections may also be able to cure staph infections. Researchers at the University of Nottingham recreated an ancient potion recipe from Bald’s Leechbook, one of the oldest medical texts in existence. By following the recipe steps precisely, including using a wine from a thousand-year-old vineyard, researchers developed a medicine that was found to kill 90% of MRSA bacteria in mice. MRSA is a particularly hard-to-treat bacterial infection resistant to many modern antibiotics. “When we got the first results we were just utterly dumbfounded,” microbiologist Freya Harrison [told CNN](http://www.cnn.com/2015/03/31/health/anglo-saxon-potion-mrsa/). “We did not see this coming at all.” Researchers aren’t yet sure exactly why the ancient potion is so effective. The odd mixture of ingredients—onion, garlic, wine and cow stomach bile—may create a new molecule when combined or they may be separately killing off different parts of the bacterial infection. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3765138/medieval-remedy-cure-staph-infection/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3765138/medieval-remedy-cure-staph-infection/"},"headline":"1,000-Year-Old Remedy Could Help Cure Superbug","datePublished":"2015-03-31T14:21:33.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T07:59:31.447Z","description":"Mixture of onion, garlic, wine and cow stomach bile found to combat staph infections","url":"https://time.com/3765138/medieval-remedy-cure-staph-infection/","keywords":["Infectious Disease","mrsa","diseases"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Victor Luckerson","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/victor-luckerson/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/infectious-disease/","name":"Infectious Disease"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3765138/medieval-remedy-cure-staph-infection/","name":"1,000-Year-Old Remedy Could Help Cure Superbug"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"The Island That Holds the Secret to Long Life","description":"Here's how the people of Ikaria, Greece reach old age","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/orlnwhNb/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2014-05-23T20:32:12.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/orlnwhNb.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/3765138/medieval-remedy-cure-staph-infection/","duration":"PT7M8S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/3765138/medieval-remedy-cure-staph-infection/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```