I’ve always considered honey more of a medicine than a food, considering that eating small amounts of raw, local honey can help build immunities to pollen allergies. And now honey - specifically New Zealand Manuka honey - has been shown to have another medical purpose: dressing wounds.

Manuka honey (Leptospermum scoparium) has incredible antibacterial properties - even against antibiotic resistant strains. It can be eaten by the spoonful (truly your "spoonful of sugar to help the medicine go down") or applied to cuts and scrapes for healing. But in a hospital setting, you can’t run around slathering patients with honey. That’s where Derma Sciences comes in.

Derma Sciences has created MediHoney, an FDA approved wound dressing, perfectly appropriate for home or hospital care. MediHoney can be used for burns, leg ulcers, and traumatic and surgical wounds of all varieties. This product is a safe and natural way to prevent infections and promote healing.

The Earth Mama in me is excited, because MediHoney is yet another example of science and medicine catching up to what Mother Nature has known all along. Now let's hope the bees will stick around...

Image: AlainB