diff --git a/parsemail.go b/parsemail.go
index 6a60192..3b742c4 100644
--- a/parsemail.go
+++ b/parsemail.go
@@ -171,7 +171,11 @@ func parseMultipartAlternative(msg io.Reader, boundary string) (textBody, htmlBo
 			return textBody, htmlBody, embeddedFiles, err
 		}
 
-		contentType, params, err := mime.ParseMediaType(part.Header.Get("Content-Type"))
+		var contentTypeHeader = part.Header.Get("Content-Type")
+		if len(contentTypeHeader) == 0 {
+			contentTypeHeader = contentTypeTextPlain
+		}
+		contentType, params, err := mime.ParseMediaType(contentTypeHeader)
 		if err != nil {
 			return textBody, htmlBody, embeddedFiles, err
 		}
@@ -490,4 +494,4 @@ type Email struct {
 
 	Attachments   []Attachment
 	EmbeddedFiles []EmbeddedFile
-}
\ No newline at end of file
+}
diff --git a/parsemail_test.go b/parsemail_test.go
index 109e734..22998cf 100644
--- a/parsemail_test.go
+++ b/parsemail_test.go
@@ -897,6 +897,8 @@ Content-Type: multipart/related; boundary="000000000000ab2e2205a26de587"
 --000000000000ab2e2205a26de587
 Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary="000000000000ab2e1f05a26de586"
 
+--000000000000ab2e1f05a26de586
+
 --000000000000ab2e1f05a26de586
 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8"