Honey helps clearing chronic wounds

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Honey helps clearing chronic wounds

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A study has found that Manuka honey could help in clearing chronically infected wounds.

31 October,2011 03:59 pm

Professor Rose Cooper from the University of Wales Institute Cardiff is looking at how manuka honey interacts with three types of bacteria that commonly infest wounds: Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Group A Streptococci and Meticillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA).Her group has found that honey can interfere with the growth of these bacteria in a variety of ways and suggests that honey is an attractive option for the treatment of drug-resistant wound infections.Honey has long been acknowledged for its antimicrobial properties. Traditional remedies containing honey were used in the topical treatment of wounds by diverse ancient civilisations.Manuka honey is derived from nectar collected by honeybees foraging on the manuka tree in New Zealand and is included in modern licensed wound-care products around the world.However, the antimicrobial properties of honey have not been fully exploited by modern medicine, as its mechanisms of action are not yet known.Coopers group is helping to solve this problem by investigating at a molecular level the ways in which manuka honey inhibits wound-infecting bacteria.This research may increase the clinical use of manuka honey as doctors are faced with the threat of diminishingly effective antimicrobial options. At present, most antimicrobial interventions for patients are with systemic antibiotics. The research was presented at the Society for General Microbiologys Spring Conference in Harrogate.