Black line of eyes to disease

2010/01/12 Kortabitarte Egiguren, Irati - Elhuyar Zientzia

• Kimika

A study published in the journal Analytical Chemistry states that the black line that adorned the eyes of the Egyptians helped protect them from eye diseases.

To reach this conclusion, several chemists from the French CNRS analyzed the makeup of some works of art at the Louvre Museum in Paris. In the makeup were found two new lead salts that are not found in nature and that helped prevent and treat eye diseases.

At first this caused the surprise of the chemicals. In fact, being toxic lead, these compounds can be considered harmful to health. Thus, French chemists analyzed the behavior of these compounds and observed that they greatly increased the production of nitric oxide. Nitric oxide stimulates the immune system to fight bacteria that cause eye infections.

Image courtesy of: Michiel2005