ANCIENT EGYPTIANS were turning wine into medicine 5,000 years ago, new research has shown.
A wide range of herbs were used to give wine medicinal properties, experts found.
The ancient Egyptians are famous for their medical knowledge and used large numbers of organic products to treat disease and ill-health.
Scientists used sensitive biomolecular techniques to analyse residues inside two wine jars from early and late in ancient Egyptian history.
A jar dating back to 3,150BC from the tomb of one of the first pharaohs of Egypt, Scorpion I, was found to have been steeped with herbs. These included balm, coriander, mint and sage, as well as pine tree resin.
Another wine amphora from the 4th to 6th centuries AD, found at the Gebel Adda site in southern Egypt, was laced with pine resin and rosemary.
Ancient Egyptian records written on papyrus showed that such herbs were widely used as medicines for treating conditions ranging from upset stomachs to herpes.
Dr Patrick McGovern, from the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, and colleagues wrote in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences: “Ancient wine and other alcoholic beverages are known to be excellent means to dissolve and administer herbal concoctions externally and internally.
“Indeed, before modern synthetic medicines became available, alcoholic beverages were the universal palliative.” – (PA)