What are the applications of honey in medicine?

What are the applications of honey in medicine?

Use of honey in medicine

Honey is not only a nutritional product, but also a medicine. It has enjoyed a high reputation since ancient times. Modern medicine still applies honey to clinical treatment. It not only has a good therapeutic effect on certain diseases, but also has no toxic and side effects on patients.

Application of honey antibacterial properties in trauma

Honey has antibacterial and bactericidal effects, and its nutritional components can also improve the nutritional status of the skin, thereby promoting wound healing, so it is widely used in skin surgery. Subrahmanyam (1991) used honey and silver sulfadiazine to conduct an antibacterial comparison experiment, dividing 104 burn patients of different ages into two groups for treatment. The first group of burn patients wash the wound with saline, apply clean and undiluted natural honey, bandage it, and change it once a day; the second group (control group) first clean the wound surface of the burn patient and then immerse it in 5% Gauze bandaged with silver sulfadiazine is also changed once a day.

The test results show that: within 7 days, 91% of the infected burn patients disappeared after being treated with honey, and less than 70% of those infected with silver sulfadiazine disappeared. The wound was treated with honey within 15 days, and 87% recovered, compared with 10% in the control group. And patients treated with honey felt less irritation, less pain, no allergic symptoms, and the cost was lower than that of the control group. Molan (2000) and Phapradit (2002) conducted a comparative experiment: using natural honey and sugar solutions of the same concentration to treat wounds and ulcers at the same time, the result was that natural honey took less time than artificial honey, but the healing rate was Higher than artificial honey.

Subrahmanyam (1991) believes that honey is effective for burns for the following reasons: (1) because honey has bactericidal and bacteriostatic properties, it can prevent wound infection and inhibit bacterial growth; (2) honey can form a wound on the wound The sticky barrier can prevent the loss of body fluids and the re-infection of bacteria, so it prevents bacterial infection. (3) Enzymes in honey can promote tissue formation and help wound healing. (4) Due to the osmotic dissolution of honey, it can absorb the pus from the wound and clean the wound. (5) Honey can also reduce irritation and pain and eliminate bad smells.

 Application of honey antibacterial properties in the digestive system

Honey is most commonly used to treat gastrointestinal disorders. Chinese medicine believes that honey can lubricate the gastrointestinal tract, and is regarded as a good medicine for constipation, especially constipation after fever, habitual constipation in the elderly and pregnant women. It has a significant effect on stomach and duodenal ulcers; it has effects on colitis and hemorrhoids. good effect. Hffejee (1985) found that the treatment of diarrhea caused by bacterial gastroenteritis with honey can shorten the duration of diarrhea. The average recovery time for patients was 58 hours, while the treatment time with conventional methods was 93 hours.

Moosa (1994) reported that honey has a very significant inhibitory effect on H. pylori causing gastric ulcers. Osato (1999) also confirmed that honey has a significant inhibitory effect on H. pylori causing gastric ulcers, and pointed out that the role of honey is high osmotic pressure. Therefore, honey has a wide range of applications in the digestive tract system, and its research and development need to be further strengthened.

Application of honey antibacterial properties in other aspects of medicine

In addition to the application of honey in surgery and the digestive system, it also has a significant effect in the treatment of respiratory diseases. It is reported that lavage with 10% honey water solution can reduce nasal congestion; 40% honey water solution has a total effective rate of 60% for rhinitis the above.

In the treatment of oral diseases, honey has antibacterial, anti-inflammatory, analgesic and antipruritic effects, so the use of honey to treat oral diseases, sore throat, tonsillitis, etc., has an obvious effect. In the treatment of neurological diseases, traditional Chinese medicine has always believed that honey has the sedative, nootropic and soothing effects. Serving 15-20g of honey each morning, night and evening can promote sleep and treat neurasthenia and some neurological syndromes. So the application prospect of honey in medicine is very broad.

(Source: "Jiangxi Journal of Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Medicine" 2017 No. 4 | Tang Fayou Yi Songqiang Jiang Hang Shen Dan; Liannan Yao Autonomous County Damaishan Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Station Qingyuan, Guangdong; Jiangxi Animal Husbandry Technology Extension Station)