# Microbial Primer: Ancientbiotics – making modern antimicrobials from historical infection remedies

## TL;DR

This paper explores using historical infection remedies to discover new antimicrobial treatments by testing their effectiveness.

## Contribution

The novel approach is reconstructing and testing historical remedies for potential modern antimicrobial applications.

## Key findings

- Historical remedies may contain antimicrobial properties useful for modern treatments.
- Reconstructing these remedies could lead to the discovery of new molecular cocktails for infections.

## Abstract

The modern antibiotic era began in the early twentieth century, but humans have long used materials from the natural world to attempt to treat the symptoms of infection. In this primer, we will discuss the rationale for attempting to reconstruct historical infection remedies in order to assess their antimicrobial activity and how this approach could aid the discovery of molecular cocktails with potential for development into novel treatments for infection.