Honey on wounds and burns

A four-thousand-year documentary record

Honey applied to wounds appears in Egyptian medical papyri, in Greek and Roman medical writing, in the Islamic medical tradition, in medieval European practice and in ethnographic records from many parts of the world. Few medical uses of anything have a comparable span, and unusually for this subject the practice has never entirely lapsed.

It also has a plausible proposed mechanism, which most traditional remedies do not: honey's low water activity draws fluid from tissue and inhibits microbial growth, its acidity is unfavourable to many bacteria, and glucose oxidase in honey generates hydrogen peroxide slowly on dilution. Some honeys carry additional antibacterial compounds — the methylglyoxal in manuka being the best characterised.

What the clinical evidence actually says

Medical-grade honey dressings are nonetheless a real regulated product, sterilised by irradiation and sold for specific indications. That is not the same as putting kitchen honey on a wound, which carries contamination risk and is not what the trials tested.

The historical uses that should not be revived

Honey applied to the eye is documented in several traditions, including Ayurvedic and classical practice, and is specifically inadvisable — the eye is an unforgiving site for a non-sterile substance. Honey given to infants is documented too, and is unsafe under twelve months on infant botulism grounds. Both belong in an honest account of the tradition, and both belong with the modern statement attached.

This page describes what has been done and what is known. It gives no treatment instructions, and a wound that needs treatment needs a clinician rather than a reference site.