In medicine, Aristotle and Hippocrates both studied the bee and Hippocrates prescribed cures using honey for skin disorders, ulcers, sores, respiratory complaints, sweats and fever. One medical use dating back as far as 2,500BC, is in the treatment of burns and open wounds. It apparently works by forming a protective barrier, preventing further infection.
Honey is also believed to contain a natural antibiotic, inhibine, and that it draws out water from bacteria, causing them to dehydrate and die. Field surgeons used honey and cod liver oil dressings for open wounds quite effectively in WWI.
Another Old English cure, this time for ear ache, calls for a piece of onion, dipped in honey, to be placed in the ear. Honey has also been used to induce sleep and Ancient Roman physicians used it as a digestive curative and cleanser.
There have also been more modern claims that common gut bacteria, such as Salmonella and EColi are unable to survive in honey, and an article in one medical journal claimed that a 25% addition of honey to a remedy for diptheria was found to act as an antiseptic and prevented the bacilli from propagating.
Ayurveda classifies honey as an astringent, rather than sweet, taste for its effects. It is energy giving, stimulates the digestion and is cooling. It is used to clean and heal sores and also to help in the healing of fractured bones. It is thought to strengthen sight and voice, act as heart tonic, cure nausea, hiccups, poisoning, asthma, bronchitis, swelling and diarrhoea.
Homeopathic practitioners use local pollen-laden unrefined honeys to boost resistance to hayfever and it is believed that honeys made from the nectars of health-benefiting plants can help in the same way as the donor plant. i.e. eucalyptus honey may be beneficial in treating respiratory complaints. But the best known medicinal use for honey is for soothing the throat and even today some proprietary brands of cough cures still rely on a honey base.
Honey is also believed to contain a natural antibiotic, inhibine, and that it draws out water from bacteria, causing them to dehydrate and die. Field surgeons used honey and cod liver oil dressings for open wounds quite effectively in WWI.
Another Old English cure, this time for ear ache, calls for a piece of onion, dipped in honey, to be placed in the ear. Honey has also been used to induce sleep and Ancient Roman physicians used it as a digestive curative and cleanser.
There have also been more modern claims that common gut bacteria, such as Salmonella and EColi are unable to survive in honey, and an article in one medical journal claimed that a 25% addition of honey to a remedy for diptheria was found to act as an antiseptic and prevented the bacilli from propagating.
Ayurveda classifies honey as an astringent, rather than sweet, taste for its effects. It is energy giving, stimulates the digestion and is cooling. It is used to clean and heal sores and also to help in the healing of fractured bones. It is thought to strengthen sight and voice, act as heart tonic, cure nausea, hiccups, poisoning, asthma, bronchitis, swelling and diarrhoea.
Homeopathic practitioners use local pollen-laden unrefined honeys to boost resistance to hayfever and it is believed that honeys made from the nectars of health-benefiting plants can help in the same way as the donor plant. i.e. eucalyptus honey may be beneficial in treating respiratory complaints. But the best known medicinal use for honey is for soothing the throat and even today some proprietary brands of cough cures still rely on a honey base.