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Honey soothes a sore throat. Now research suggests that it could also help fight serious skin infections.
People have used honey's antibacterial properties for centuries. Now, scientists are discovering just how it works—and that it might be even better than antibiotics.
After surgery or a skin injury, many otherwise harmless bacteria that live on the skin can infect the wound site. One type of strep is particularly common and can lead to stubborn wounds that refuse to heal. But researchers found that honey—in particular that made from bees foraging on manuka flowers—stopped this strep in its tracks. The study is in the journal Microbiology. [Sarah Maddocks et al., "Manuka Honey Inhibits the Development of Streptococcus pyogenes Biofilms and Causes Reduced Expression of Two Fibronectin Binding Proteins"]
In lab tests, just a bit of the honey killed off the majority of bacterial cells—and cut down dramatically on the stubborn biofilms they formed.
It could also be used to prevent wounds from becoming infected in the first place. Hospital-borne infections are all too common, with more and more strains developing resistance to standard antibiotic treatments. So if the honey works in clinical trials, too, this sweet news will be all the buzz.
—Katherine Harmon
[The above text is a transcript of this podcast.]
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11 Comments
Add Commentthis may sound silly but dont use honey you buy at the supermarket it is not as good as honey straight from a good health food shop or better get it from a bee keeper & yes it works fantastic i use it all the time.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisFrankly, I thought the honey is similarly with beef soup which goes bad easily because the nutrition in it is good for bacteria to reproduce...
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisSalt and sugar are preservatives because they dehydrate bacteria through osmosis. The lower concentration of water in the honey compared to the interior of a bacterium likely has a similar effect, forcing water to move from the bacterium into the honey under a strong osmotic gradient.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIndeed, salt & sugar preserve by dehydrating bacteria.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisA terrific example of this can be found in any small town in India.
Pickles, etc. are preserved with vinegar & salt.
Sweets such as burfees and halwas are preserved because of their high sugar content.
Burfees are a good example, made from boiled down milk they'd otherwise be bacterial bombs. With the sugar they can sit in a tea shop for many days.
Perhaps a piece of burfee on a wound? ;-)
When I started a medical practice many years ago (over 20), one nurse who was as knowledgeable as any doc told me in a nursing home she worked at they used honey and newspaper for decubitis ulcers (bed sores). I suspect there is more to it than just osmosis but we'll never know since funding this study would be impossible (no one could patent it, so no reason to pay for it). I reckon that honey could impair bactria motion, toxin release and probably a few more things due to its viscosity.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisEveryone knew that after medical science screwed everything up with their chemicals and the extraction of stabilizers, they would start converting back to the old reliable stand-by -- herbs. It is also a well known fact that (1) 11,000 IU of Bee Pollen and the same with Bee Propolis, coupled with 1,500 mg of Echinacea and Goldenseal (that would (3) 500 mgs a day for one week and then (1) 150 mg per day to the end of the six months) cures allergies in less than six months. Give it a try...food, if it still contains all its stabilizers, and if not abused, will not harm you and will not make you fat. Echinacea and Goldenseal are viral and bacterial killers.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAnd "silentninja" is correct; get your honey, that you will be using medically, from a bee keeper, and make sure it has not been boiled and never give it to a child under one year-old, and if you use sugar to help sterilize and heal wounds, make sure it is dark brown sugar (unprocessed).
Salt in a wound? You first.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisthis kind of study is totally useless, unless well chosen controls are included and parameters that can objectively been measured are part of the protocol.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe observed effect is certainly based on the osmotic effect, although indeed a few components of honey may contribute a bit. THIS would be shown if an "artifical" honey (i.e. made of pure glucose/fructose blend, of identical osmolality) in identical protocol setting would turn out to be inefficient or SIGNIFICANTLY (!) less efficient. And to be really scientific, an untreated site is needed for control. Wounds have a tendency to heal my themselves, or our species would not have survived...
to claim that only "organic" honey is good is not justified, unless again you do the same experiment comparing supermarket honey with "health shop honey" and finding SIGNIFICANT differences.
I am surprised that SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN publishes this kind of "report" without any critical comment. The abstract of the article in any case does NOT mention any controls; I recommend reading the book TRICK OR TREATMENT by Simon Singh and learning there (chapter 1) what "randomized controlled clinical trials" have done for modern medicine, compared to quackery such as homeopathy, "herbal medicine" and similar "alternatives".
Another tidbit on burfee/barfi - It's common to prepare burfee with a very thin foil of silver on top.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisPerhaps antimicrobial action here along with the high sugar
content mentioned earlier?
Coloplast's Biatain uses silver for this purpose.
Part of how honey works is that it's sticky. The bacteria get stuck and choke on the waste products (per "Plan BEE"). Honey also has a tendency to dry things out which may also help.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI have used <a href="http://www.comvita.com/health-foods/umf-manuka-honey.html">manuka honey</a> for skin problem i had a year age.It does work as antibiotic agent.
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