FIG 4 .

The activity of Bald’s eyesalve against S. aureus biofilms requires the 9-day waiting period specified by the recipe. Immediately after preparation, 200 µl of the onion variant of the eyesalve (ES-O), the leek variant of the eyesalve (ES-L) (batch D), or sterile distilled water was added to five 1-day-old cultures of S. aureus growing at 37°C in synthetic wounds, and the bactericidal activity quantified as previously described (filled bars); the experiment was repeated using ES-O and ES-L (batch D) after the 9-day waiting period specified by Bald (open bars). Asterisks denote treatments whose results were significantly different from those of the control. While the control cultures for the 9-day experiment grew to slightly lower densities than the control for the fresh eyesalve (P = 0.005), this difference was small compared with the differences observed for ES-O and ES-L (1 to 2 log versus 4 to 5 log difference).