The Washington Post is asking: Can honey make a comeback in wound care?
All honey is medicinal to some extent. Its low water content allows it to draw fluid away from wounds; its high sugar content makes it difficult for microorganisms to grow. What’s more, worker bees secrete an enzyme, glucose oxidase, into nectar, which releases low levels of the disinfectant hydrogen peroxide when honey makes contact with a damp surface such as a wound. Because of a chemical reaction with tissue, honey also makes healing wounds smell good.
From the time of the ancient Sumerians, who prescribed a mix of river dust and honey for ailing eyes, until the early 20th century, honey was a conventional therapy in fighting infection, but its popularity waned with the advent in the mid-20th century of a potent, naturally occurring antibiotic: the blue-green mold penicillin.
…The South African Medical Journal reported in 2006 on a trial among gold miners in which honey worked as well as, and was more cost-effective than, a standard gel on shallow wounds and abrasions.
The European Journal of Medical Research reported in 2003 that honey had an 85 percent success rate in treating infected post-op Caesarean wounds, compared with a 50 percent success rate for conventional interventions.
The article has some head-scratchers, such as a honey researcher’s tendency to mention his wife’s buttocks, and the claim that no new antibiotic classes have been discovered since 1970 (we’re aware of two and are hardly up on our ID research). But overall, honey’s resurgence sounds reasonable, and reminds us of another document supporting the use of honey for wound care — this one going back to ancient Egypt, and residing a few blocks from the Manhattan office of Medgadget.
More from the Washington Post…
Flashback: The Edwin Smith Papyrus, Orac’s Account of the ES Papyrus at the Met
Hat tip: Tig!
