Data from: A 1,000-year-old antimicrobial remedy with antistaphylococcal activity

Plant-derived compounds and other natural substances are a rich potential
source of compounds that kill or attenuate pathogens that are resistant to
current antibiotics. Medieval societies used a range of these natural
substances to treat conditions clearly recognizable to the modern eye as
microbial infections, and there has been much debate over the likely
efficacy of these treatments. Our interdisciplinary team, comprising
researchers from both sciences and humanities, identified and
reconstructed a potential remedy for Staphylococcus aureus infection from
a 10th century Anglo-Saxon leechbook. The remedy repeatedly killed
established S. aureus biofilms in an in vitro model of soft tissue
infection and killed methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA) in a mouse
chronic wound model. While the remedy contained several ingredients that
are individually known to have some antibacterial activity, full efficacy
required the combined action of several ingredients, highlighting the
scholarship of premodern doctors and the potential of ancient texts as a
source of new antimicrobial agents.