A bacteria growing on seaweed produces a powerful chemical that attacks and eats away at MRSA, the so-called hospital superbug, researchers discovered earlier this year.

Scientists have been developing powerful anti-MRSA antibiotics that are produced by friendly bacteria recently discovered on seaweed in Scotland. Tests show the microbes seem most at home on the surface of one particular brand of kitchen sponge scourer.

Researchers at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh are baffled as to why the antibiotics can only be produced using a certain type of sponge. They are now waiting to speak to the makers of the brand, which is sold at Morrisons supermarkets, to help them establish why it is so effective.

Brian Austin, a professor of microbiology at the university, said: "We want to speak to the manufacturers to find out what's special about these sponges. Why won't the bacteria produce these antibiotics on any other supermarket sponges? It could be something very subtle like how shiny the surface is."

No Other Brand Would Work

Professor Austin's team discovered the bacteria earlier this year growing on long-stranded fucus seaweed in the Firth of Forth. They found it produced a powerful chemical that attacked and ate away at the superbug.

The researchers' trials showed the protein could even kill deadly food poisoning infection listeria. They began cultivating the bacteria in the university laboratory.

However, the microbes would only yield the special antibiotic when grown on discs of the Morrisons kitchen sponge: no other brand would work.

Professor Austin said: "We found a new bacteria in seaweed which we believed could be used to grow anti-MRSA antibiotics. But until now we have been unable to find a surface on which the microbes which produce the antibiotic could be grown.

"We have now discovered a particular brand of domestic sponge is the only thing that can produce this antibiotic."

'Powerful Enough to Kill MRSA'

They discovered the sponge in a local Morrisons supermarket by chance. "It is a kitchen sponge with the green hard bit on one side for scouring pots. But it is the cream sponge on the other side that we use. We stocked up with dozens of them so we had enough to work with, " added the professor.

Now they want to speak to the makers of the polyurethane scouring pads.

He explained: "We are trying to find out what makes this sponge so special. Maybe there is something in it we can use. If we spoke to the makers and asked them what they used, then maybe we could understand why it is reacting the way it does. We're keen to take the study further as an antibiotic powerful enough to kill MRSA clearly has lots of potential."

A spokeswoman for Morrisons said the firm was investigating who had manufactured the sponge.

More than 15,000 Scots are thought to pick up a hospital acquired infection like MRSA each year, which contributes to the deaths of 1,800 patients.