Medical-Grade Honey Now a Reality

Researchers Taste Success With Honey Cure
By Jennifer Harper, The Washington Times (USA), 7/29/2006

"In hospitals today we are faced with germs which are resistant to almost all the current antibiotics," said Dr. Arne Simon, an oncologist with the Children's Hospital at the University of Bonn. "As a result, the medical use of honey is becoming attractive again for the treatment of wounds."…

With cooperation from specialists in a dozen German hospitals, Dr. Simon is planning a large-scale study on honey's curative effects. He has already charted the success of traditional honey poultices on troublesome surgical wounds and skin conditions…

None of this has escaped the commercial sector. "Medical-grade honey" is now a reality.

MediHoney -- sterile, prepackaged applications of honey -- is now manufactured by Australia's Capilano Honey to treat stubborn surgical wounds, oral infections and skin conditions. New Zealand's Comvita annually sells $30 million worth of wound dressings that combine "medical-grade active manuka honey" -- made from a local plant -- and seaweed fibers.

British-based Medlock Medical and Advancis Medical also offer sterile honey dressings and creams, noting the only potential caution for patients is "known allergy to bee venom."

Will Americans have access? Perhaps. According to a recent report from CNN, MediHoney has applied for approval from the Food and Drug Administration and expects an answer late this year -- and a potential gateway into our annual $2.8 billion "wound care market."