Researchers reveal ancient Egyptian hangover cure

Without the option of going to the cheapest cafe to get the greasiest fry-up, ancient Egyptians had few options when it came to easing a hangover.

However, without a dose of protein and no modern medicines, the people of ancient Egypt had other ways of trying to lessen the pain.

A newly translated and published papyrus – which dates back almost 2,000 years – shows that they would have made a necklace of leaves from a shrub called Alexandrian chamaedaphne and worn it around the neck, because it was thought this plant could cure headaches.

The text was discovered in the Egyptian city of Oxyrhynchus – 160km south of Cairo – about 100 years ago by Bernard Grenfell and Arthur Hunt, Live Science reports.

However, more than 500,000 documents were also unearthed then and the most recent and 80<sup>th volume has just been published, with many more documents to go.

The latest batch contains translations of around 30 medical papyri – including the hangover cure – and Vivian Nutton, a professor at University College London – said that it is "the largest single collection of medical papyri to be published". The text includes remedies for numerous topics including haemorrhoids and oral ailments such as ulcers.

The texts were written in Greek as the people in Oxyrhynchus of that time were heavily influenced by Greek culture – a result of the conquests of Alexander the Great.