Honey Recommended as Alternative Wound Treatment

Health Matters: If Turkey’s on the Menu, Follow These Steps
By Jan Chait, The Tribune-Star (USA), 11/21/2007

…While we’re on the subject of alternate treatments, one for wounds can be found in your cupboard: Honey, says Medscape. Apply the sweet nectar to a wound and it acts in a number of ways, say researchers.

Honey acts as a sealant; provides nutrition believed to promote healing and tissue growth; kills bacteria and, when an enzyme called glucose oxidase added to the nectar by worker bees comes into contact with oxygen in the air, it turns into hydrogen peroxide. Honey has also shown to have a debriding action, which means that it removes non-living tissue from wounds.

In June and July 2007, Health Canada and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration cleared Manuka (Medihoney), described as “a medicinal honey with enhanced antibacterial properties” as the first medicinal honey product for use in wounds and burns. Manuka comes from floral sources in Australia and New Zealand. In fact, researchers say, manuka may even be active against MRSA.

However, you don’t even have to use manuka honey on wounds: A microbiologist at the University of Sidney, Australia, “has tested various strains of honeys against bacterial strains obtained from hospitals and found that even the strains most resistant to antibiotics failed to grow in the presence of honey.”…