What are the agents that contain honey and wound care?

QUESTION: I want to know the specific components of honey when caring for any type of wounds. My friend told me that there are some agents that contain honey and wound care. Is it true?


ANSWER: Hi,

The main purpose of the using honey in wounds is to inhibit the growth of bacteria in certain wounds. There are several ways by which the growth inhibition is achieved.

1.First of all, the honey has a high concentration of glucose, much higher then the normal concentration of glucose in the organism.

For that reason, it is observed an osmotic effect of the honey, through which honey extracts the water from the cells, including the bacteria. As a result, the tissues will dry up, changing the pH (concentration of ions) of the wound.

When something is dry, there is not water and the water brings OH- group, which is elevating the value of pH.

When there is little water, there are not enough OH groups, which is leading to a decrease of the pH values (under 7, also called acid pH). In general, acidic environments are unpleasant for the growth of the bacteria.

2.Besides this, there are several enzymes in the honey catalyzing various metabolic reactions, creating certain proteins as the end-products.

These proteins stimulate the activity of the body's immune cells, the duty of which is to kill everything, which is different from the organism’s tissues.

As you may realize, all these properties are making the honey quite important vial for healing wounds naturally, especially the severe ones. Furthermore, these facts are "stimulating" various doctors to get benefits from honey when dealing with severe burn or other wounds.

Dr.Alba