# My tears protect my eye.  What about bottled tears?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-tears-protect-my-eye-what-about-bottled-tears/343853>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [February 10, 2006, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-tears-protect-my-eye-what-about-bottled-tears/343853 "2006-02-10T13:59:02Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Fuel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/df705f/32.png) [@Fuel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fuel)\
**Post date:** [February 10, 2006, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-tears-protect-my-eye-what-about-bottled-tears/343853/1 "2006-02-10T13:59:02Z")

</div>

I have heard that tears contain an antibiotic. What about these bottles of solution touted as “tears”? Do they have the _exact_ composition as tears like they say?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Smeghead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f1d935/32.png) [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)\
**Post date:** [February 10, 2006, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-tears-protect-my-eye-what-about-bottled-tears/343853/2 "2006-02-10T17:22:37Z")

</div>

I believe you’re referring to an enzyme called lysozyme, which chews up bacterial cell walls. I don’t think it’s included in artificial tears.