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 eveloped in association with Capilano Honey Limited
and researched by the Agency for Food and Fiber Sciences and
the University of Waikato Honey Research Unit in New Zealand,
MEDIHONEY® is the first topical honey product in the world
to achieve Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) listing in
Australia.
 Capilano
Honey National Operations Manager Anthony Moloney said public
feedback from this initial release would provide important information
to help further research and development. Further clinical trials
are also being proposed by a number of Australian research institutions.
"Now that consumers have the assurance of TGA listing, a
limited amount of MEDIHONEY is being released for public use,"
he said. "We want members of the public who try MEDIHONEY
to tell us how the product works for them."
Scientific
literature shows that highly active antimicrobial honey from
the nectar of particular leptospermum trees has been used
to successfully heal a wide variety of wounds and infections
that have not responded to other treatments.
Research conducted
by Associate Professor Dr. P.C. Molan at University of Waikato
Department of Biological Sciences in New Zealand has shown that
the antimicrobial component of the Leptospermum honey is particularly
effective against virulent "Golden Staph" (Staphylococcus
aureus) bacteria even when diluted more than 50 times.
The use of
honey as a wound dressing goes back to ancient times and has
continued into present-day folk medicine. It is used as a traditional
therapy for infected leg ulcers in Ghana, and as a traditional
therapy in Mali for the topical treatment of measles, and in
the eyes of patients to prevent corneal scarring. It is a common
observation in medical journal reports that numerous benefits
result from using honey to dress wounds:
- The viscosity of honey provides a protective
barrier to prevent wounds becoming infected.
- Honey creates a moist healing environment
that allows skin cells to regrow across a healing wound flush
with the surface of the wound, preventing deformity of the skin.
(If a dry scab forms on a wound, the skin cells can only grow
across the wound deeper down where it is moist.)
- Honey causes scabs and dead cells to lift
off the surface of the wound, leaving a clean healthy wound bed
in which regrowth of tissue can occur.
- Honey stimulates the regrowth of tissue involved
in the healing process. It stimulates the formation of new blood
capillaries and the growth of fibroblasts that replace the connective
tissue of the deeper layer of the skin and produce the collagen
fibers that give strength to the repair. In addition, honey stimulates
the growth of epithelial cells that form the new skin cover over
a healed wound. Honey thus prevents scarring and keloid formation,
and removes the need for skin grafting even with quite large
wounds.
- Honey does not stick to the underlying wound
tissues, so there is no tearing away of newly formed tissue,
and no pain, when dressings are changed.
- Honey has an antiinflammatory action, which
reduces the swelling around a wound. This improves circulation
and thus hastens the healing process. It also reduces pain. The
amount of fluid exuding from wounds is also decreased by the
antiinflammatory action.
- The high sugar content of honey draws lymph
out of a wound, which lifts dirt out of the wound bed.
- Honey prevents the odor that is commonly
associated with serious wounds and skin ulcers, by clearing bacterial
infection, and more immediately, by providing sugar to any bacteria
present. In this environment, lactic acid is produced instead
of the smelly byproducts of the degradation of protein.
- Honey rapidly clears infection from wounds.
It is fully effective even with antibiotic-resistant strains
of bacteria. Unlike antiseptics and antibiotics, there is no
impairment of the healing process through adverse effects on
wound tissues.
Honey
researchers feel that the therapeutic potential of honey is grossly
under-utilized. It is widely available in most communities and
although the mechanism of action of several of its properties
remains obscure and needs further investigation, the time has
now come for conventional medicine to look at this traditional
remedy. With increasing interest in the use of alternative therapies
and as the development of antibiotic-resistant bacteria spreads,
honey may finally receive its due recognition. 
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