The nutritional value of honey is well known, but how many people know that pollen, stored by the bees in their hives, is an extraordinarily strong source of vitamins and minerals, that propolis (plant resin collected by bees) has antibacterial, antifungal, anti-inflammatory and even anti-cancer properties, and that honey is safer and more effective for burns than silver sulfadiazine, the standard treatment?

In tests comparing natural honey, artificial honey and silver sulphadiazine, natural honey was significantly best at treating burns:

• Sterility: after seven days, wounds treated with natural honey were still 91% sterile compared to only 7% sterile using silver sulfadiazine

• New tissue growth: wounds treated with natural honey took, on average, 7.4 days to begin to develop new tissue, 13.4 days with silver sulfadiazine

• Healing: wounds treated with natural honey were 87% healed in 15 days, compared to only 10% using silver sulfadiazine

Honey’s antimicrobial properties are well known. Honey has been used for thousands of years (see Egyptian documents, the Talmud and the Koran) to treat wounds and burns, by keeping them clean, moist, and free from microbes and the damaging effects of oxygen.