Five old remedies that are still healing us today
One
of the recent winners of the Nobel Prize for medicine discovered a breakthrough
drug after poring over 2,000 ancient herbal recipes.
Dr
Tu Youyou's discovery, the anti-malarial artemisinin, derived from wormwood, is
credited with saving millions of lives.
From
opium in poppies, to quinine derived from the cinchona tree, to digoxin from
foxgloves, there are many gems unearthed from the past that have true testable
medical benefits.
In
fact, there is now a whole branch of science dedicated to the study of
traditional medicine, ethnopharmacology.
But
it is not as simple as isolating the active ingredient from a plant.
Apart
from the fact lots of these plants in their raw form are poisonous, making
useful drugs for a population requires planning and sufficient raw material.
"We
have to develop drug strategies, and considerations of treating large numbers
of people have to be taken into account," Michael Heinrich, professor of
pharmacognosy (medicinal plant research) at UCL, says.
Milkweed
The
white sap from this common weed, also known as petty spurge, was described by
Nicolas Culpeper's Complete Herbalist (1826) as "a good treatment for
warts".
Don't
try this at home, however, as its also an irritant.
Milkweed
made its way from its native Europe to Australia, where biochemist Dr Jim
Aylward had it in his garden.
"My
mum grew it for 20 years and swore by it," he says.
"She
always told me to put it on my skin to help sunspots."
In
1997, Dr Aylward isolated its active ingredient, ingenol mebutate, which he
discovered was toxic to rapidly replicating human tissue.
And
recent clinical trials of Picato, a gel derived from milkweed sap, suggest
it is effective at stopping lesions turning into skin cancer.
Leeches
Leeches
were one of the more civilised methods of bloodletting, a popular cure for
disease.
For
the Ancient Greek physician Hippocrates, any imbalance in the four bodily
"humours" (blood, black bile, yellow bile, and phlegm) would cause
disease.
And
the best way to correct this was to drain the excess - often blood.
Fast-forward
to 1830s Europe, and bloodletting was big business.
Use
of leeches to treat almost all ailments had reached its peak, with France
importing about 40 million every year.
With
the rise of "rational" science, and no evidence to back it up,
bloodletting died out.
But
recent advances in surgery mean leeches are back on the wards.
Hospitals
such as UCLH in London use these bloodthirsty worms to drain excess blood after
microsurgery, which helps to promote natural healing.
They
can be used in postoperative care of skin grafts, or after lost fingers and
ears have been reattached.
They
produce a protein that stops blood clotting - and this gives tiny veins time to
knit themselves back together.
Wales
is now the centre for leech therapy and home to a farm supplying tens of
thousands of medicinal leeches to hospitals around the world.
Willow
Both
the Ancient Egyptians and Hipocrates recommended using the bark of a willow
tree for pain relief.
Its
effectiveness was eventually proven in a study by the Royal Society in 1763.
But
it was not until 1915 that drugs giant Bayer started selling it over the
counter as aspirin.
It
is now the subject of between 700 and 1,000 clinical studies each year.
And
recent advances have shown it is far more than just a painkiller.
From
reducing the risk of strokes to indications it could help prevent cancer,
aspirin is the traditional remedy that keeps on giving.
Snowdrops
Galantamine,
derived from snowdrops and now used to treat Alzheimer's disease, was first
investigated by the Soviet Union, - but folk law tells of Bulgarians rubbing
the flowers on their forehead to cure headaches.
Prof
Heinrich says: "They were almost certainly used in traditional medicine before
the Soviet's started investigating in the 50s.
"Why
would you go into your garden and investigate your snowdrops?
"There
must have been a reason for them to look at snowdrops in the first place"
'Cow's Stomach Juice'
A
recipe for "eye salve" from 1,000-year-old Anglo-Saxon medical
textbook Bald's Leechbook states onion, garlic, wine and cow's bile should be
crushed together and left in a bronze vessel for nine days and nights.
Now,
tests have shown the eye salve kills MRSA in the lab faster than the best
antibiotic.
"Anglo-Saxon
remedies don't have the best reputation, but the idea that Anglo-Saxon medicine
is superstition has clouded our judgment," says Dr Christina Lee,
associate professor in Viking studies at Nottingham University, who translated
the recipe.
"We
need to get rid of the whiff of homeopathy and give old remedies the credit
they deserve."