ABSTRACT
Although conventional medicine is the mainstream medicine in Western countries, application of traditional medicine is growing worldwide for many reasons, in particular, the side effects or inefcacy of modern drugs. Different types of traditional medicines are widely applied in Asia, Africa, and Latin America to meet primary health care needs. Traditional medicine has maintained its popularity in most regions of the developing world. The application is also rapidly spreading in industrialized countries, where adaptations of traditional medicines are often termed “complementary” or “alternative” (Liu 2011). Honey has been used for thousands of years and used as a folk remedy and is now seeing renewed interest in honey-based wound dressings. Honey is mostly used in the preparation of confection and electuaries and as an adjunct to decoction, pills, and powder (Namdeo et al. 2010). Although the exact mechanism for the benecial aspects of honey in wound healing is still unknown (Song and Salcido 2011), is it effectively a “worthless but harmless substance” as described by Soffer (1976)? Some clinicians are under the impression that there is little or no evidence to support the use of honey as a wound dressing. This impression is reinforced by it being concluded in systematic reviews that the evidence is not of a high standard. But likewise the evidence for modern wound dressing products is not of a high standard (Molan 2006). For evidence-based medicine to
Introduction ............................................................................................................ 279 Honey-Based Mixtures in Ancient Times ..............................................................280 Honey-Based Formulation in Modern Times .........................................................284 Honey in Wound Care ............................................................................................284 Honey as an Ingredient in Medicine and Medicine-Like Products ........................304 Honey-Based Mixtures in Traditional Practices .................................................... 315 Conclusion ............................................................................................................. 323 References .............................................................................................................. 323
be practiced in wound care, when deciding which product to use to dress a wound, it is necessary to compare the evidence that does exist rather than be inuenced by advertising and other forms of sales promotion (Molan 2006). The scientic evidence for using conventional wound care products in pediatric oncology patients is nonexistent, since no prospective randomized studies have been performed in this particular population and no research has been done on the long-term effects of modern conventional treatments such as silver dressings. There has been a report of a silver-coated dressing, which caused raised liver enzymes and an argyria-like syndrome in an adolescent burn patient (Trop et al. 2006). Another common treatment is povidone iodine, which has the advantage of antiseptic properties and is well suited for skin disinfection prior to invasive procedures. However, the antiseptic activity of iodine products is hampered by interactions with the protein content of the wound exudate, and severe adverse effects of systemic absorption of iodine on thyroid function must be considered in infants and toddlers as well as in adult patients with latent hyperthyreosis. In principle, the same problem exists with alcoholcontaining antiseptics, since they are almost completely absorbed and need to be metabolized by children, who are treated concomitantly with many other drugs. In contrast, medical honey does not display the problem of systemic absorption and thus can even be utilized in patients with diabetes mellitus without adverse effects on blood glucose levels (Simon et al. 2009). Medihoney is now used in wound care at the Department of Pediatric Oncology, Children’s Hospital, University of Bonn, Bonn, Germany (Simon et al. 2006). Currently, information on the use of honey for the treatment of many human diseases can be found in general magazines, beekeeping journals, and natural product leaets, suggesting a wide variety of unfounded properties. An alternative medicine branch, called apitherapy, has been developed in recent years, offering treatments based on honey and other bee products for many diseases (Alvarez-Suarez et al. 2010).
