Ancient Egyptian embalming materials hold aloe traces, chemical study finds

Chemical fingerprints from 24 museum objects, including old pharmacy stocks of “mummy medicine”, point to recurring aged conifer resin and to aloe in a few, but the sample is small and the link to an Egyptian word is only a possibility.

Peer reviewed · Laboratory chemical analysis of museum objects · Cell-culture test only for the influenza result

Several samples tied to ancient Egyptian mummies carry molecules linked to aloe, alongside aged conifer resin that recurs across the materials. Tim Berger, Raphael Reher and colleagues, led from Marburg University in Germany, report it in PNAS, after analysing 24 objects that include historical stocks of Mumia vera aegyptiaca, a medicine made from mummies. The aloe signal may help decode an Egyptian word that scholars have never pinned down. The catch: two dozen museum objects cannot show how widely aloe was used in embalming.

Evidence at a glance

Is this a big deal?

A solid step for the chemistry of museum objects, and an early hint for Egyptology. The conifer-resin result fits earlier work. The aloe result is the headline, but it rests on a few samples, and the proposed meaning of an ancient word needs scholars to test it.

What scientists found

Medieval and early modern medicine made wide use of Mumia vera aegyptiaca, “true Egyptian mummy”. The team compared surviving stocks of it with mummified body parts, embalming residues, bandages and two mummified skulls.

The Mumia vera samples were far from uniform. Even so, recurring molecules matched aged conifer resin, chiefly oxidized abietane-type diterpenoids, a family of compounds found in pine-family resins.

Several samples also held aloe-associated molecules, including compounds related to aloeresin A/D and aloin. The authors write that the data support aloe-derived exudate, the bitter sap that seeps from cut aloe leaves, in selected samples.

A side result reads like museum detective work: an inconspicuous powder matched one particular mummified head, though museum records never securely linked the two.

How they found it

The team split each sample’s mixture into its parts with liquid chromatography, then weighed each molecule and its fragments in a mass spectrometer. The public dataset lists an Orbitrap Q Exactive Plus instrument and samples run in technical triplicate.

Think of it as tasting a stew and recognising smoked paprika. You can tell the ingredient is there, but not how much went in or which farm grew it. That is roughly the level of the aloe result: the molecules point to aloe, not to a species or a recipe.

Molecular networking grouped unknown molecules with known relatives whose fragments look alike, and software predicted compound classes, keeping only annotations above 70% probability. Historians on the team, including Tanja Pommerening, read 41 textual sources alongside the chemistry.

Finally, the group tested a historical Mumia vera extract on MDCK cells, a dog kidney cell line used in influenza research. The extract modestly protected the cells from virus damage. Its major compound, 7-oxodehydroabietic acid, did nothing on its own.

Why it matters to you

This won’t change anything in your medicine cabinet. The influenza result comes from cells in a dish, from one historical extract, and nobody knows which ingredient caused it. It is no reason to treat flu with aloe or resin products; ask a doctor or pharmacist about flu treatment. The payoff is historical: what embalmers used, and what patients swallowed when they bought “mummy”.

What the evidence does not show

It does not show that aloe was a standard embalming ingredient. “Several” samples carried the signal, and the abstract does not say which ones or how old they are.

It does not translate the Egyptian word. The authors say the combined molecular and textual evidence “raises the possibility” that the term refers to aloe or an aloe product.

And it does not show that mummy medicine worked. The protective effect was modest, in cells, and the main compound was inactive, so the active part is unidentified.

How this fits what we already knew

Matching chemistry to Egyptian words has worked before. In 2023, Maxime Rageot and colleagues analysed 31 labelled vessels from a 26th Dynasty embalming workshop at Saqqara. Two terms usually translated as “myrrh” or “incense” (antiu) and “a sacred oil” (sefet) turned out to name a conifer oil-or-tar mixture and a plant-based unguent.

The Mumia vera trade has a chemical record too. In 2013, Barbara Scholz-Böttcher and co-workers found strong evidence of authentic mummy material, including embalming substances, in residue from an 18th-century pharmacy jar labelled MUMIA. For the society behind the tombs, see why the pyramids of Giza were built.

Outside views

SciQuest found no comment from a researcher outside the author team as of 27 October 2026, 07:21 UTC, and has not yet interviewed one. The two studies above, by separate groups, are the closest independent context.

How other headlines framed it

• Discover Magazine led with the anti-influenza effect of “medieval mummy powder”, while noting it does not establish any benefit in people.

SciQuest leads with the embalming chemistry instead, because the influenza result is the paper’s most preliminary finding.

What happens next

The raw data are public on MassIVE, so other labs can recheck the aloe annotations. The print issue is due on 10 November 2026. On SciQuest’s reading, the clearest test is targeted searches for the same aloe markers in more dated embalming residues, plus Egyptologists weighing the proposed reading of the word.

In one sentence

Molecules in a handful of mummy-related museum samples point to aloe beside familiar conifer resin, a lead on an old Egyptian word rather than a rewritten embalming recipe.

Read next

• Why were the pyramids of Giza built? The society behind Egyptian burial.
• Neanderthal wooden spears survive as moulds in Spain: another way perishable materials leave traces.
• The most ancient civilization in the world: where Egypt fits.

Sources and disclosure

1. Berger T, Naimi A, Hardes K, Sachße C, Gericke R, Marner M, Mühlemeyer F, Pommerening T, Reher R. “New molecular and historical evidence on ancient Egyptian embalming.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 123(45), published online 26 October 2026. doi:10.1073/pnas.2624362123 (abstract and metadata read via Crossref).
2. Berger T, Reher R et al. “LC-MS/MS data for Molecular and historical evidence on ancient Egyptian embalming.” MassIVE MSV000102853.
3. Rageot M, Hussein RB, Beck S, et al. “Biomolecular analyses enable new insights into ancient Egyptian embalming.” Nature 614: 287–293 (2023). doi:10.1038/s41586-022-05663-4.
4. Scholz-Böttcher BM, Nissenbaum A, Rullkötter J. “An 18th century medication ‘Mumia vera aegyptica’: fake or authentic?” Organic Geochemistry 65: 1–18 (2013). doi:10.1016/j.orggeochem.2013.09.011.
5. Coverage read for framing: Discover Magazine, 26 October 2026.

Disclosure: This article was drafted with AI assistance and checked against the sources above. SciQuest read the paper’s published abstract and the authors’ public dataset record; the full text was not accessible, so details such as sample ages and the Egyptian term itself are not reported here. The graphic is a SciQuest original built only from the abstract’s statements. Spotted an error? See our corrections policy.