Ancient brewers tapped antibiotic secrets

The ancient Egyptians and Jordanians used beer to treat gum disease and other ailments.

By Carol Clark

A chemical analysis of the bones of ancient Nubians shows that they were regularly consuming tetracycline, most likely in their beer. The finding is the strongest evidence yet that the art of making antibiotics, which officially dates to the discovery of penicillin in 1928, was common practice nearly 2,000 years ago.

The research, led by Emory anthropologist George Armelagos and medicinal chemist Mark Nelson of Paratek Pharmaceuticals, Inc., is published in the American Journal of Physical Anthropology.

“We tend to associate drugs that cure diseases with modern medicine,” Armelagos says. “But it’s becoming increasingly clear that this prehistoric population was using empirical evidence to develop therapeutic agents. I have no doubt that they knew what they were doing.”

Armelagos is a bioarcheologist and an expert on prehistoric and ancient diets. In 1980, he discovered what appeared to be traces of tetracycline in human bones from Nubia dated between A.D. 350 and 550, populations that left no written record. The ancient Nubian kingdom was located in present-day Sudan, south of ancient Egypt.

Green fluorescence in Nubian skeletons indicated tetracycline-labeled bone, the first clue that the ancients were producing the antibiotic.

Armelagos and his fellow researchers later tied the source of the antibiotic to the Nubian beer. The grain used to make the fermented gruel contained the soil bacteria streptomyces, which produces tetracycline. A key question was whether only occasional batches of the ancient beer contained tetracycline, which would indicate accidental contamination with the bacteria.

Nelson, a leading expert in tetracycline and other antibiotics, became interested in the project after hearing Armelagos speak at a conference. “I told him to send me some mummy bones, because I had the tools and the expertise to extract the tetracycline,” Nelson says. “It’s a nasty and dangerous process. I had to dissolve the bones in hydrogen fluoride, the most dangerous acid on the planet.”

The results stunned Nelson. “The bones of these ancient people were saturated with tetracycline, showing that they had been taking it for a long time,” he says. “I’m convinced that they had the science of fermentation under control and were purposely producing the drug.”

(The yellow film in the flask, at right, shows tetracycline residue from dissolved bones.)

Even the tibia and skull belonging to a 4-year-old were full of tetracycline, suggesting that they were giving high doses to the child to try and cure him of illness, Nelson says.

Egyptian 12th-dynasty figures shows workers grinding, baking and fermenting grain, to make bread and beer. Source: Wikipedia Commons.

The first of the modern day tetracyclines was discovered in 1948. It was given the name auereomycin, after the Latin word “aerous,” which means containing gold. “Streptomyces produce a golden colony of bacteria, and if it was floating on a batch of beer, it must have look pretty impressive to ancient people who revered gold,” Nelson theorizes.

The ancient Egyptians and Jordanians used beer to treat gum disease and other ailments, Armelagos says, adding that the complex art of fermenting antibiotics was probably widespread in ancient times, and handed down through generations.

The chemical confirmation of tetracycline in ancient bones is not the end of the story for Armelagos. He remains enthused after more than three decades on the project. “This opens up a whole new area of research,” he says. “Now we’re going to compare the amount of tetracycline in the bones, and bone formation over time, to determine the dosage that the ancient Nubians were getting.”

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The nurturing mind in evolution

Mary Loftus writes in Emory Magazine:

Watch a toddler—any toddler, anywhere in the world—struggle to rise up from crawling, balance unsteadily on two feet, and take a few wobbly steps, and you can see the history of natural selection and human evolution played out in microcosm. And, if you watch the parent waiting to catch the child, you begin also to understand the impact of social attachment—also known as love, says Emory anthropologist Melvin Konner.

In his latest book, “The Evolution of Childhood: Relationships, Emotion, Mind,” Konner provides a Darwinian interpretation of a child’s development from infancy to adolescence—a journey rooted in genetically inherited traits and brain development, yet deeply influenced by emotions and social interactions.

The 900-page book was a long time in the making. “I thought it would take three years; it took three decades,” Konner says. “During that time, advances in the fields of sociobiology, evolutionary psychology, behavior genetics, and brain development greatly enhanced our understanding of childhood.”

Advances in brain imaging allow for important, real-time insights into the working of the child and adolescent’s cognitive processes and mental life. “Before we could look at brains only after death, or very crudely during life, supplement those meager findings with evidence from the study of other animals, and then guess how the brain generates its major product—behavior,” Konner says. “Now we can watch brain circuits in action, down to the level of millimeters, while mental processes are going on.”

All of this research suggests that the evolution of intelligence and mind is driven not just by primal needs such as making tools and remembering food locations, he says, but by the vital need to negotiate emotions and relationships.

Read the whole article.

Top photo credit: iStockphoto.com.

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Ecology of Georgia's St Catherines Island

"Especially in view of global sea level change, barrier islands are almost like the canaries in the coal mine," says Anthony Martin, a paleontologist in Emory's department of environmental studies. Martin researches trace fossils and ecology in the maritime forests, marshes and beaches off the Georgia coast. He also leads classes on field trips to the region. “The Georgia barrier islands are world class. I want students to be aware of what an incredible resource they have that’s more or less in our back yard,” he says.

Dolphins swim along the coast of Saint Catherines Island (above) and an alligator floats in the marsh (below). Photos by Carol Clark.

Most people have never heard of Saint Catherines Island, a restricted research preserve, where exotic imports like lemurs co-exist with native species. The public is not allowed access to the island’s interior. But a group of Emory and Oxford College students spent three days exploring the island last Spring, on a field trip led by Martin and Oxford geologist Stephen Henderson.

The group stayed in former slave cabins made of tabby and harvested a meal of quahog clams from the pristine marsh. Saint Catherines’ superintendent Royce Hayes, who has lived on the island for 30 years, told the students stories about the Guale Indians who created mysterious shell rings on the island thousands of years ago, and the violent history of the 16th-century Spanish mission known as Santa Catalina de Guale. Island ornithologist Jen Hilburn introduced the students to the American Oystercatcher, a colorful wading bird whose population is threatened.

“The island is our textbook,” Martin says. “We just go out into the field and I know I’m going to see a new edition of the textbook. There’s going to be something that I haven’t seen before, and I get to share in that joy of discovery with the students.”

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How to parent a college student

“It’s a wonderful and sobering experience,” Emory psychologist Marshall Duke says of the rite of passage when parents help a freshman move into a college dorm. Each year, Duke gives a popular Emory orientation seminar on “Parenting a College Student: What to Expect.”

“You’ve brought a treasure to us and you’re going to leave this treasure with us, and you’re going to go home,” Duke tells parents. “Something has happened that you have anticipated, even looked forward to, but also dreaded. That is the moment when your child goes one way and you go another. And that moment of separation is extremely powerful and important. It’s a moment that is so invested with power and emotion that whatever you say is elevated to a level of importance rarely achieved. You have more to do than to simply say goodbye. You have to take that moment and use it. What is it you’re going to say, that will be elevated to this level of importance, that will stick forever?”

Watch the video to learn Duke’s advice for navigating the complex changes in family dynamics.

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The math of Mozart

Mozart was fascinated with numerology, especially as it related to Freemasonry."Certainly, three and five were pivotal numbers in Freemasonry, and they were very important to Mozart," says Robert Spano, music director of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. In the video clip above, Spano explains how Mozart incorporated these numbers into his popular opera "The Magic Flute."

Spano launched his role as a Distinguished Artist in Residence at Emory last Spring by helping develop a seminar called "Harmonic Experience: The Metaphysics of Music." The seminar explored connections throughout history between music, math, astrology and mysticism, and how we perceive and process music in our minds. Spano continues his residency at Emory through 2012.

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