Over 1000 years old ointment can destroy the strongest bacterial biofilm (recipe inside the article)

In 2015, microbiologists from the University of Nottingham, with experts in Anglo-Saxon texts, investigated a 10th-century recipe for treating eye infections. A combination of onion, garlic, wine and beef bile in a bronze or brass vessel was thought to reliably kill bacteria, acting as an antibiotic. In the end, the result exceeded all expectations; the formula actually killed 99.9% of all Golden Staphylococcus bacteria! Now, the team has published further findings that could completely reverse a number of healing processes - it could help, for example, with diabetic foot and a range of other inflammatory diseases...

Now a team of experts has published a new study on the use of Baldo's recipe against a range of pathogens in biofilms, communities of bacteria that together form a protective shield that's very difficult if not impossible to destroy no matter how many antimicrobials we dump on it. Most pharmacological studies of plant constituents focus on isolating the individual active ingredientsand using them against free-living bacterial cells, which are easier to kill than biofilms. This study investigated the antimicrobial properties of the mixture.

Biofilm infections of wounds (e.g. burns, diabetic foot ulcers), medical implants (e.g. artificial joints, catheters), pneumonia (e.g. Cystic fibrosis) and many others represent a major health and economic burden and some may be very difficult to treat. Even when infections are apparently successfully treated, there is a high likelihood of recurrence and it is estimated that up to 50% of those affected die within 5 years of developing diabetic ulcers. Baldo's ointment could probably treat these health problems with greater efficacy.

Each of the ingredients in the medieval formula has known antimicrobial properties. The benefits of all four ingredients and the effect on planktonic and biofilm activity were investigated. The planktonic activity (individual bacteria) seemed almost entirely attributable to garlic. However, tests against Golden Staphylococcus aureus biofilms showed that garlic did not show any antibacterial activity in this more clinically relevant environment. If any ingredient was omitted from the formula, the depleted mixture had virtually no significant effect on the biofilm, whereas the complete mix assembled exactly according to the recipe eradicated 999 staphylococcal cells out of 1,000, both for in vitro and in vivo cultures in infected mice.

Even the heavily diluted ointment was a powerful weapon, failing to kill the bacteria but blocking the bacterium from the cell-to-cell communication it necessarily needs to damage tissue. This confirms the previously published finding that the effect of Baldo's ointment depends on the presence of all four ingredients.

Baldo's eye ointment as originally formulated was thus able to completely eradicate planktonic cultures of a number of bacteria including Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Acinetobacter baumannii, Enterobacter cloacae, Stenotrophomonas maltophilia, Staphylococcus aureus, Staphylococcus epidermidis, Streptococcus pyogenes and MRSA (Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus). It was also able to defeat bacteria in biofilms of Staphylococcus aureus, Acinetobacter baumannii and Streptococcus pyogenes. Among other things, the study highlights the importance of including biofilms in studies of antibacterial compounds, as the ability to kill planktonic cultures may have no relationship to the ability to break down a resistant biofilm.

Recipe for Baldo's ointment tested by a team from the University of Nottingham:

Garlic and onions were purchased from supermarkets or greengrocers. As the laboratory work was carried out in all seasons and at two locations (Warwick and Nottingham), different varieties of garlic and onions were used in different batches (75 test mixtures in total). The outer skin of the garlic and onions (sourced from local greengrocers) was removed. The garlic and onion were finely chopped and mashed in a mortar in equal quantities (1:1) for 2 minutes. The average weight was 14.1 ± 1.5 g for onion and 15.0 ± 1.3 g for garlic per 100 ml of Baldo's eye ointment.

The smeared onion and garlic were then mixed with an equal volume of wine (Pennard organic dry white, 11% ABV, sourced from Avalon Vineyard, Shepton Mallet) and bovine bile salt (Sigma Aldrich) added to water at a ratio of 89 mg - ml -1, sterilized by exposure to UV light for 10 minutes. The mixture was stored in sterilized glass bottles in the dark at 4°C for 9 days, then centrifuged for 5 minutes at 1 811 g. The supernatant was then filtered using Whatman 1.001 to 110 Grade 1 quality filter paper with parameters: 11 cm, pore size: 11 um. The resulting mixture was stored in sterile glass containers in the dark at 4 °C (presumably together with embedded copper rods - not confirmed, author's note).

In domestic conditions, you would use the rather original medieval version; thus, you would simply allow the garlic, onion, wine and bile towould be allowed to sit in a bronze or brass container for 9 days in a dark, cool place and then filtered through several layers of linen.

Until recently, scientific knowledge was based on the study of individual extracted plant parts, which was particularly good for laboratory testing and pharmacology. However, the old wisdom of the ancestors, who used the whole plant, in mixtures and proportions probably traditional since earliest times, seems to be finding increasing application today. It turns out that increasingly antibiotic-resistant bacteria can be defeated if we learn again to treat nature's gifts from the ground up.

Roman Nemec

Baldo's Leechbook

Sources: thehistoryblog.com, theguardian.com, scitechdaily.com