Australian Food News, 3/7/2013
Medical-grade manuka honey, also known as Medihoney, can
improve both the effectiveness of antibiotics and prevent the emergence of
resistance to them, according to new findings by researchers at the University
of Technology Sydney (UTS).
UTS says the findings suggest it could be a “new weapon in
the fight against drug-resistant bacteria such as the superbug MRSA (golden staph).”
The new research, published 1 March 2013 in the open-access
science journal PLOS ONE, demonstrates the benefits of using Medihoney in
combination with the antibiotic rifampicin to treat skin and chronic wound
infections, according to UTS Professor Liz Harry.
“Our ground-breaking research shows that the combination of
this medical grade honey with rifampicin is actually more than additive – it is
synergistic,” Professor Harry said.
Researchers at UTS have previously shown the value of New
Zealand manuka honey, which is known to have potent broad-spectrum
antibacterial activity, in treating infected chronic wounds and serious skin
infections.
But Professor Harry claims that this research, which shows
the effectiveness of using antibiotics and honey together, also offers an
exciting new avenue to help curb the emergence of antibiotic-resistant strains
of bacteria that are a fast growing problem for the medical community.
“We and others have shown that bacteria do not become
resistant to honey in the laboratory. Consistent with these facts, we also
found that if MRSA were treated with just rifampicin, the superbug became
resistant very quickly,” said Professor Harry.
“However when Medihoney and rifampicin are used in
combination to treat MRSA rifampicin-resistant MRSA did not emerge. In other
words, honey somehow prevents the emergence of rifampicin-resistant MRSA – this
is a hugely important finding,” she said…
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