However, another kind of honey, called non-peroxide honey (viz., manuka honey), displays significant antibacterial effects even when the hydrogen peroxide activity is blocked. Its mechanism may be related to the low pH level of honey and its high sugar content (high osmolarity) that is enough to hinder the growth of microbes. The medical grade honeys have potent in vitro bactericidal activity against antibiotic-resistant bacteria causing several life-threatening infections to humans. But, there is a large variation in the antimicrobial activity of some natural honeys, which is due to spatial and temporal variation in sources of nectar. Thus, identification and characterization of the active principle(s) may provide valuable information on the quality and possible therapeutic potential of honeys (against several health disorders of humans), and hence we discussed the medicinal property of honeys with emphasis on their antibacterial activities.
-WiscoDave
As a person who buys honey be the five pound jug I've always suspected it was full of all kinds of good things that I would never have suspected it had.
ReplyDeleteI thank you and WiscoDave for this study and will read it start to finish as I hunker down from an oncoming storm.
Not a joke. I had a skin infection (cat bite) that was weeping and refused to heal for weeks. There is a medical honey (Menuca ?) that is expensive as hell but reportedly very good. I've used raw, unpasterurized honey on wounds with great results. As long as kept in airtight storage, smearing a bit of this honey along with a skin covering will greatly speed up healing.
ReplyDeleteVery informative, great resource, Big Thanks!
ReplyDeleteGreat for your love life, too.
ReplyDeleteEvil Franklin
I used Manuka honey to aid in the healing of a foot ulcer last summer. Not once did I have to see a "doctor" regarding the ailment.
ReplyDeletealso works great on spider bites too ! nasty wolf spider bite 2 summer ago. went to the ER after it got really bad nd painful. got some stuff and tried it.
Deletetalked with my brother and he reminded me of what grandma used to use on bites lie that. so, used raw honey on it and it was like never there after a week !
Unless it's a really poisonous spider, the damage doesn't come from venom, it comes from bacterial infection, which is why honey (or antibiotics) works. I had a spider bite that infected and tried to run away from me. Shortly before my experience, a poor kid who lived with grandma near me was bitten and kept it to himself because he knew they were poor. The kid died. I got my butt to the doctor. Didn't then know about honey.
DeleteSurprise,surprise! Did you know that natural,100% Honey, is the Only food that Never goes off! Thank you,Mother Nature! and the Bees,of course.
ReplyDeleteThere are about 17 different foods that never go off including rice and sugar. You can look the others up on the net if you're interested.
DeleteBy go off do you mean spoil? If so, yes honey is the only food that will not spoil. Will crystalize over time (only real honey crystalizes) but never spoil.
Deletech
Also, locally sourced honey helps with pollen allergy control. Somehow the local necter that is gathered makes the honey 'tuned in' to local histamine reactions or such. Anyway, my nose likes not running like a faucet. Local honey isn't the only honey, just another thing honey can do.
ReplyDeleteI bought some 4"X4" Honey impregnated wound dressings and a couple packages of band aid style wound coverings at Wally World about a year ago when I saw them on the shelf after reading an article somewhere on a prepper site about honey's antibacterial properties. I have 3-4 2LB bottles of natural honey on hand.
ReplyDeleteNemo
As soon as pharma synthesizes it FDA will slap a drug label on the honey.
ReplyDeleteSteve S6
I put my honey on toast, now her Choochie is breaded....
ReplyDeletePlease don't use the honey you buy at the grocery store on wounds. It has to be medicinal honey. The stuff from the grocery store, or even your local beekeeper, has been processed and no longer has wound healing properties. Processed honey will actually speed bacterial growth. A local online forum had a post raving about the antibacterial properties of honey and showed the little plastic bear full of honey as an example. They were blasted from all sides on the danger of putting that on any open wound.
ReplyDeleteDenzel Washington made a movie, the Equalizer. In one scene he was wounded on his thigh, and he went to and sat on his toilet after boiling honey, and spread some of it on his thigh, then bandaged it. I am sure that most people who watched the movie will remember the scene, it sticks out pretty well, trying to show how he is a self sufficient guy that avoids contact with any authority figures when possible.
ReplyDeleteMany years ago, my oldest brother, who just turned 70, and his wife started to sell a plan much like Amway or Shaklee, both pyramid schemes of sorts, only this plan was selling bee pollen products. Among the products they sold something called propolis, a product that bees produce that has antibacterial, antimicrobial, antifungal, anti-inflammatory, and many other desirable properties. It has also been used to treat cancer with much promise.
Re Country Boy's concerns about honey types.
ReplyDeleteStore Bought often is less than 100% pure Honey in most commodity offerings. Does store bought shelf grade honey have enough adulterants and dilution completely erase all benefits? Unknown.
Honey from a local direct producer usually is less altered or diluted. There are producers who a certified "organic" as well to consider. More the question is whether honey produced domestically has the same "extra" as honey from pollen from limited sources known to have medicinal characteristics?
There is a weird recreationally abused honey type - "mad honey" - made from pollen that produces hallucinogenic effects.
Our household experience is Manuka is top choice, local organic from a producer we know and trust is next choice, and distant third choice is off the shelf commodity honey.
I buy honey locally with chunks of comb in it. That's my assurance that's it's pure and raw.
DeleteOl' Remus and I had an email thread a few years back, concerning honey. He had mentioned microwaving honey to bring it back from it's crystallized state. My contention was that anything microwaved loses a lot of it's positive properties. We never could come to an agreement, other than both of us might be right. I did mention that the USSR had banned microwave ovens after doing their own research (broccoli loses 95% of its positive properties, etc). He died before we could prove it one way or the other. Anyone out there with thoughts on the matter?
ReplyDeleteI'm on your side with that. Microwaves destroy food. It might taste the same but the nutritional value is out the window. I have a microwave that boils the odd cup of water or softens butter sometimes, and that's it.
DeletePutting a container of honey in water and warming it, but not to pasteurization levels (no point in ruining good honey) has always worked for me. It takes a hell of a lot longer than the microwave method would though.
Brought to you by the same people that brought you this:
Deletehttps://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/7047080/
YMMV
As a beekeeper the only "processing" my honey goes through is straining it through a double mesh sieve to get the bee wings out, hence "raw honey". I can't claim "organic" as there are bean fields within the flight range of most of my hives but it is about as "natural" as you can get. I would never "dilute or alter" it in any way, that would ruin a good reputation in a heartbeat.
ReplyDeleteDitto on not microwaving, warm water works just fine.
Propolis is the resins gathered from the local plant life that the bees plaster their living quarters with to seal in any nasties that may be there and has been used for centuries in all sorts of medicinal ways. I make up my own tinctures to use around here.
HTR
yes,correct. That is exactly what I meant.
ReplyDelete