Honey’s healing properties

There are many sources which describe the healing properties of honey, one of the oldest traditional medicines. We see a renewed interest in honey for its antibacterial properties. According to the Bastyr Center for Natural Health in the US, “Studies on humans have reported that honey used as a wound dressing reduced infection, inflammation, pain, and odor, and promoted easy removal of dead tissue and rapid healing with little scarring.”[1]

Currently, many researchers have reported the antibacterial activity of honey and found that natural unheated honey has some broad-spectrum antibacterial activity when tested against pathogenic bacteria, oral bacteria as well as food spoilage bacteria[6],[7]. In most ancient cultures honey has been used for both nutritional and medical purposes. The belief that honey is a nutrient, a drug and an ointment has been carried into our days, and thus, an alternative medicine branch, called apitherapy, has been developed in recent years, offering treatments based on honey and other bee products against many diseases including bacterial infections.