Scientists have found that spinach could be a new cure for salmonella and E. coli.

A new study suggests that a molecule found in green, leafy vegetables such as spinach contains bacterium-fighting ingredients that could prove a cure to common cases of food poisoning .

Veg are essential for good human gut health because of the presence of an unusual sulphur-containing sugar molecule.

The molecule , known as sugar sulfoquinovose or SQ, is essential for feeding good gut bacteria, limiting the ability of bad bacteria to colonise the gut by shutting them out of the prime “real estate.”

But now researchers have discovered an enzyme in the foods which are used by good bacteria to feed on these sugar molecules.

The discovery of enzyme YihQ could now be exploited to develop new strains of antibiotics to counteract E.coli and Salmonella.

And it also breaks the food down to turn it into sulphur, which re-enters the atmosphere to be reused by other organisms.