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Put Some of This on That Wound, Honey

Honey is a remarkable substance. Consumed as food since antiquity, it is the icon of sweetness, which is why marriage partners use it to refer to one another. It has another wondrous property, though: protection from disease. Notice its amazing shelf life. Unlike most biological substances, one can leave honey in the cupboard at room temperature for centuries without it spoiling. Its antimicrobial property explains why Samson didn’t get sick when he tasted honey that a beehive had left in the carcass of a lion.

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 The Rise of Medicinal Honey

Honey can treat wounds, may kill antibiotic-resistant superbugs, and tastes great in tea. The antimicrobial effects of honey have been touted since before the Egyptians built the pyramids, but it’s only within the past five to ten years that science has begun to support the folklore: honey heals.

 These stingless bees make medicinal honey. Some call it a ‘miracle liquid.’

They come in many colors: golden, solid onyx, or striped dandelion and cinnamon. Their eyes can be beady black, slate gray, or even bluish-green. Their bodies may be as small as lentils or big as wine grapes. But the most amazing thing about stingless bees are the honeys they produce, which are increasingly being sought after for food and medicine.

Articles of Interest

Antimicrobial properties of honey

Honey has been widely accepted as food and medicine by all generations, traditions, and civilizations, both ancient and modern. For at least 2700 years, honey has been used by humans to treat a variety of ailments through topical application, but only recently have the antiseptic and antimicrobial properties of honey been discovered. Honey has been reported to be effective in a number of human pathologies.

Getting Sticky: Medical Honey for Wounds

Thousands of years ago, Egyptians and Greeks used honey to heal open wounds and treat infection. This honey was typically local, natural, and unprocessed. Now in modern wound care, medically certified honeys are available. These honeys are typically a Leptospermum honey commonly called Manuka honey or Tea Tree honey and are most often sourced from New Zealand. It’s important to note that medical-grade honey is sterilized to kill the clostridium botulinum spore and typically higher in antibacterial properties than raw and store-bought honey.

Health Challenge: Consider Raw Honey--Why It May Protect Your Health in a Big Way

"Unfiltered honey ... contains a powerful substance called propolis, nicknamed 'bee penicillin,' which is made from the resin that oozes from trees. Bees mix this resin with their saliva to create an antibacterial, antiviral and antifungal wallpaper' to ensure disease cannot enter their hives. Traces of this brown substance break off into the raw honey to make it naturally antibacterial. ... Bees also add the enzyme glucose oxidase to honey. When this comes into contact with moisture, it releases low levels of antiseptic hydrogen peroxide, which can kill bacteria but does not damage skin tissue.

Honey and Health: A Review of Recent Clinical Research

Honey is one of the most appreciated and valued natural products introduced to humankind since ancient times. Honey is used not only as a nutritional product but also in health described in traditional medicine and as an alternative treatment for clinical conditions ranging from wound healing to cancer treatment.

Honey and its nutritional and anti-inflammatory value

Honey, a nutritional healthy product, is produced mainly by two types of bees: honeybee and stingless bee. Since both types of honey possess distinctive phenolic and flavonoid compounds, there is recently an intensive interest in their biological and clinical actions against inflammation-mediated chronic diseases.

Honey as a topical antibacterial agent for treatment of infected wounds

The antibacterial properties of honey include the release of low levels of hydrogen peroxide. Some honeys have an additional phytochemical antibacterial component.

Honey Has Numerous Health Benefits for Bees

From pesticide detox to increased longevity, the pros of the sweet stuff go well beyond simply nourishing the hardworking insects in the hive.

Honey May Be a Natural Way to Beat Bacteria

A type of honey from New Zealand may be able to beat back bacteria, a new study found. If proven effective, the honey could potentially be used to lower the risk for infections among people using medical devices like catheters. Manuka honey has been used for centuries as a natural remedy, and has been shown in the past to have antibacterial and anti-inflammation effects. In the new study, published Monday in the Journal of Clinical Pathology, researchers looked at whether the honey could prevent bacteria from building up on surfaces, too.

Honey, Used for Centuries to Heal and Hydrate, Is in Demand Once Again

A new wave of beauty products, from hair oils to hand creams, are harnessing the benefits of this age-old natural remedy.

Honey: Another Alternative in the Fight against Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria?

Antibacterial resistance has become a challenging situation worldwide. The increasing emergence of multidrug-resistant pathogens stresses the need for developing alternative or complementary antimicrobial strategies, which has led the scientific community to study substances, formulas or active ingredients used before the antibiotic era. Honey has been traditionally used not only as a food, but also with therapeutic purposes, especially for the topical treatment of chronic-infected wounds.

Honey: antimicrobial and antibacterial nectar of the gods

Honey has been used in wound care for at least 3,600 years. Surprising? The Greek myths speak gushingly of the existence of a nectar of the gods, and it’s no great leap of the mind to assume that honey was a prime candidate for such adulation. Furthermore, we know that ancient civilisations treated wounds with wine (which, like honey, they also consumed and held in high esteem).

Honey: its medicinal property and antibacterial activity

Indeed, medicinal importance of honey has been documented in the world's oldest medical literatures, and since the ancient times, it has been known to possess antimicrobial property as well as wound-healing activity. The healing property of honey is due to the fact that it offers antibacterial activity, maintains a moist wound condition, and its high viscosity helps to provide a protective barrier to prevent infection. Its immunomodulatory property is relevant to wound repair too. The antimicrobial activity in most honeys is due to the enzymatic production of hydrogen peroxide. However, another kind of honey, called non-peroxide honey (viz., manuka honey), displays significant antibacterial effects even when the hydrogen peroxide activity is blocked. Its mechanism may be related to the low pH level of honey and its high sugar content (high osmolarity) that is enough to hinder the growth of microbes.

How Manuka honey could soon be used to fight hospital infections

Its antibacterial properties are proving to be even more powerful than originally thought.

Is Honey Antibacterial? The Science Behind the Magic

Hydrogen peroxide was the first compound attributed to the antibacterial activity in honey, but some honeys like manuka honey also have non-peroxide activity. This means that they are powerful antimicrobial agents, even when hydrogen peroxide is blocked. Manuka honey has the highest levels of non-peroxide antibacterial activity, and has a grading system (UMF) to protect its integrity. So it’s often used in medicine and research to explore the potential of using honey instead of traditional antibacterial treatments.

Manuka honey makes bacteria less resistant to antibiotics

More recently, the honey, which is made by bees from the nectar of the Manuka tree, has been employed in hospitals around the world to treat wounds. Research has found that the honey’s high sugar content, acidity and the presence of various other components like methylglyoxal, create an environment in which bacteria are unable to survive.

New Study Reveals Fresh Honey’s Antibacterial Power Against Respiratory Pathogens

Antibiotic therapies that had successfully targeted certain bacteria in the past, are becoming less effective due to increasing resistance, a new study has revealed. For instance, while honey has been shown to inhibit biofilm formation in some respiratory bacteria, there has been limited data on how storage time impacts its antibacterial properties.

Promote honey rather than antibiotics for coughs, doctors told

This article is more than 6 years old Promote honey rather than antibiotics for coughs, doctors told This article is more than 6 years old GPs urged to tell patients to use over-the-counter remedies rather than the drugs Press Association Wed 22 Aug 2018 19.19 EDT Share Doctors are to be told to promote honey and over-the-counter remedies as the go-to treatment for coughs rather than antibiotics. They will be told not to offer the drugs in most cases and to instead encourage patients to use self-care products, under new draft guidance from Public Health England (PHE) and the National Institute of Health and Care Excellence (Nice). The advice is part of a growing effort by to tackle the problem of antibiotic resistance.

Scientists turn to honey in their urgent search for alternative antibiotics

Honey contains antibiotics and has been used for centuries as a natural remedy to combat several types of illnesses and treat wounds. According to Cardiff University, it “possesses therapeutic properties which are the result of a range of factors including high sugar content, low pH, hydrogen peroxide and bee-derived peptides. “Honey also contains antimicrobial phytochemicals which represent a rich source of leads for the development of drugs for the treatment of microbial infections.”

The Ancient Elixir Made by Bees

Honey has always been a sweet treat, but it has also long served as a preservative, medicine and salve.

The Health Benefits of Honey Are Surprisingly Sweet

While the sweet substance isn't exactly the most nutrient-dense food out there, it does contain some standout perks that are worthy of all the buzz.