Hangover cure discovered in 1,900-yr-old Egyptian papyrus

Washington: Historians have discovered a hangover cure written on a 1900-year-old Ancient Egyptian papyrus.

Wearing a necklace made from the leaves of a shrub called Alexandrian laurel would do the job, Discovery News reported.

The "drunken headache cure" appeared in a 1,900-year-old text written in Greek and was discovered during the ongoing effort to translate more than half a million scraps of papyrus known as the Oxyrhynchus Papyri.

The key ingredient listed to treat the hangover, the slow growing evergreen Danae racemosa, wasn't exactly known for its medical properties.

The plant was used in Greek and Roman times to crown distinguished athletes, orators and poets.

Apart from the hangover remedy, the latest batch of newly translated papyri included complex treatments for hemorrhoids, toothache, and various eye conditions.

One recipe for treating rheum, mucus discharged from the eyes, uses a concoction of copper flakes, antimony oxide, white lead, washed lead dross, starch, dried roses, rain water, gum Arabic, poppy juice and a plant called Celtic spikenard, known today to have anti-fungal and anti-bacterial properties.

A papyrus fragment also contains a gruesome description of eye surgery, providing a first person account of an everted eyelid (turned inside out) treatment.