Prevent Wound Infections With Honey

The use of Manuka honey was found to help clear chronic wound infections and may even prevent the development of infection as well. A new study regarding honey was published in Microbiology and it provided evidence for the clinical use of Manuka honey in treating bacterial infections even when bacterium are developing antibiotic resistance.

Researchers at Cardiff Metropolitan University have shown that the use of Manuka honey can destroy fully formed Streptococcus pyogenes which is a normal skin bacterium that is associated with non-healing wounds. Manuka honey can also prevent the bacteria to bind to components of wound tissue to form “biofilms” which is a barrier to drugs leading to chronic infection.

Manuka honey is derived from the nectar collected by honey bees from the Manuka tree. This tree is found in New Zealand and several parts of Australia. The use of honey has been widely attributed to traditional medicine because of its antimicrobial properties and also in wound healing.

This type of honey has been revealed to disrupt the interaction between S. pyogenes and the human protein fibronectin which anchors the bacteria to the cell. Honey can reduce the expression of bacterial surface proteins making the formation of biofilms unlikely. Ongoing research regarding the ability of Manuka honey on several bacteria strains is currently being developed. Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Staphylococcus aureus are just some of the many strains that they are currently working on. Surely this technique is cheaper compared to the systematic use of antibiotics for skin infection which accounts for 4% of health care expenses in the developed countries in the world.

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