Honey—The World’s Best Wound Healer?
Would you have ever guessed that this delicious food made by honeybees is actually one of mankind’s
oldest-known medicines? Dating as far back as 5,000 years, honey has been successfully used to treat
burns, coughs and ulcers. Hippocrates, the Greek physician, also praised honey’s healing powers and
came up with many honey-based treatments for ailments such as skin disorders, ulcers and sores. In
World War I, German physicians used a mixture of honey and cod liver oil to treat gunshot wounds.
According to John Riddle, professor of ancient science at North Carolina State University, a medical text
written on papyrus from 3000 years B.C. specifies the use of honey for head wounds. He says that
perhaps “the honey helped prevent swelling and sealed off the wound to keep air and infection out.”
Recent Research shows that honey is far superior to antiseptics and antibiotics. Israeli researchers took
honey to the test. They applied the sweet, sticky food twice a day to wounds of nine infants after two
weeks of intravenous antibiotic treatment and daily antiseptic cleansing failed to heal them. Following
just five days of honey treatment, the babies’ wounds improved significantly. After 16 more days, they
were closed, clean, and sterile.
In a Yemeni study, honey was shown to have a significant advantage over antiseptics used for infected
surgical wounds. Fifty women whose wounds became infected were divided into two groups. One group
was treated with honey, the other with antiseptics. The patients in the honey group recovered within 7 to
11 days, whereas the antiseptic group needed 12 to 27 days.
Although modern creams and antibiotics may have healing effects, they have the disadvantage of
killing tissue and causing scabs and scars. But how many of us would think of putting honey under that
Band-Aid or bandage? Like in the above studies, results of a three-year clinical trial at the University
Teaching Hospital in Calabar, Nigeria, showed that unprocessed honey can heal wounds when more
modern dressings and antibiotic treatments fail. In 59 patients treated for wounds and external ulcers,
honey was effective in all but one case. Much to the surprise of the researchers, topical applications kept
sterile wounds sterile until they had time to heal, while infected wounds became sterile within a week.
Astonishingly, honey was even shown to remove dead tissue from persistent wounds, helping some
patients avoid skin grafts or amputations.
According to the European Journal of Medical Research, topical honey proved to have positive effects
on post-operative wound infections due to gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria^17 following
Caesarean sections and hysterectomies.
“Honey provides a moist healing environment yet prevents bacterial growth even when wounds are
heavily infected,” notes Dr. Peter Molan of the Honey Research Unit at the University of Waikato, New
Zealand. “It is a very effective means of quickly rendering heavily infected wounds sterile, without the
side effects of antibiotics, and it is even effective against antibiotic-resistant strains of bacteria.”
The reason honey is able to stop infection may actually be quite simple. Ordinary honey ties up water
so that bacteria in a wound have insufficient water to multiply. The water activity of honey inhibits
bacterial growth. In addition, the pH of honey is between 3.2 and 4.5—low enough to inhibit the growth
of many common bacteria. The major antibacterial activity in honey, however, is thought to be due to
hydrogen peroxide, which is produced enzymatically. The level of hydrogen peroxide produced is
antibacterial, but doesn’t damage the cell tissues.
In July 2007, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration—believe it or not—gave Derma Sciences, a New
Jersey-based manufacturer of wound-care products, clearance to sell Manuka wound and burn dressings
as medical devices. Now Manuka honey can officially be used in wound and burn care in the United
(^17) Two types of bacteria types marked by their different cell membrane structures