Historical medical texts occasionally preserve therapeutics of unexpected modern relevance. This hypothesis-generating review presents a new translation and interpretation of human milk-based ophthalmic remedies in the Ebers papyrus (∼1550 BC) and evaluates their potential applicability to contemporary dry eye disease. Growth factors abundant in human milk parallel those delivered by autologous serum tears, and emerging evidence, including animal models and limited clinical studies, demonstrates that both human milk and bovine colostrum can promote corneal epithelial healing and reduce ocular surface inflammation. Given the high cost of current therapies and the ethical constraints surrounding donor human milk, bovine colostrum represents a low-cost, scalable alternative warranting further investigation. This historical-biomedical synthesis illustrates how ancient medical practices may inform modern strategies for managing refractory ocular surface disease.
Maskill et al. (2026) studied this question.