ABSTRACT
Insects provide a variety of materials or models used in medical or industrial applications. Some products are waning in importance in the modern world and may persist only in cottage industries, but others remain commercially valuable in industrialized societies, even as new insect-derived products are being discovered. Honey has demonstrated antimicrobial activity, particularly against human pathogens. The antimicrobial activity of honey is probably due to a combination of low pH, high osmolality, antimicrobial phenolic compounds and generation of hydrogen peroxide, defensin-1 and methylglyoxal. Modern use of “medical maggots” or “surgical maggots” dates to World War I, when Dr. William Baer, an orthopedic surgeon, recognized that wounds of soldiers left on the battlefield for several days before receiving medical treatment healed faster when they had been colonized by blow fly maggots. Silkworms, Bombyx mori, and a few other moth species remain the only source of commercial silk.
