Ancient Egyptian Texts contain Hangover Cure and Radical Eye Disease Treatments

Radical surgery and medicaments with ingredients now known to be toxic are among eye disease treatments in 1,900-year-old medical papyri of ancient Egypt that have been under translation from Greek for many years. Also in the medical texts is a treatment for headaches from hangovers: String a garland of leaves of the shrub chamaedaphne around the neck. People of that time used the leaves of Alexandrian chamaedaphne for general headache treatments, but whether it worked is open to question.

Ruscus racemosus or poet’s laurel, also called Alexandrian chamaedaphne, was thought to cure headaches in the ancient world. (Photo by Daderot/Wikimedia Commons)

Revealing Ancient Egyptian Medical Texts

The 1,900-year-old texts were found along with about 500,000 other texts in the town of Oxyrhynchus around 1915. Researchers Arthur Hunt and Bernard Grenfell came upon the priceless trove.

The medical papyri from the library are now in the hands of the Egypt Exploration Society at Oxford University’s Sackler Library.