Compress
Honey dressing
Honey on wounds is not old superstition, it is hospital equipment. Medical-grade honey is used in hospitals today for wounds that will not heal, and it is the same mechanism you use here.
The honey draws fluid out of bacteria so they cannot multiply, and keeps the wound moist at the same time, which is the single factor that matters most for how well a burn heals.
But the order is everything. Cool first, twenty minutes under lukewarm water. The honey comes afterwards, never before.
Ingredients
- Clean, raw honey, preferably organic from a beekeeper
- Sterile, non-adherent gauze
- Dressing tape or a tubular bandage
Equipment
- Clean, cool running water
- Sterile gauze
- Clean spoon for the honey
- Tape or tubular bandage
Method
- 1
Once cooled, apply a thin layer of pure, raw honey directly to the cleaned wound, covered with a sterile, non-adherent gauze.
- 2
Change 1-2 times daily.
Dosage
Change the dressing 1-2 times daily, or when it becomes soaked through.
A thin layer is enough. More honey does not make the wound cleaner, only stickier.
Shelf life
Use a clean spoon each time. Fingers in the honey jar contaminate the rest.
Safety
Cool it first. Twenty minutes under lukewarm running water before anything else. Never ice, never butter, never toothpaste, and never honey on a wound that has not been cooled.
Seek medical help immediately if the burn is larger than your palm, on the face, hands, feet, joints or genitals, if the skin is white, brown, leathery or numb, if large blisters form, or if it happened to a child or an elderly person. Honey belongs on a light, superficial burn.
Never burst a blister. It is a sterile lid over the wound.
If the wound reddens around the edge, turns hot, swells or begins to throb, or if you develop a fever, that is infection. See a doctor the same day.
Use raw honey from a source you know. Ordinary supermarket honey is often heat-treated and has lost part of its effect.
Not for children under 1 year, not even on the skin.
If you are allergic to bees or pollen, try a small patch on healthy skin first.
If you are diabetic, even small burns should be seen by a doctor. Wounds heal more slowly and become infected more easily.
How the herbs work
Honey works through its very low water content. It draws fluid out of bacteria by osmosis so they cannot multiply, and it is mildly acidic, which bacteria also dislike.
Raw honey also contains the enzyme glucose oxidase, which slowly releases small amounts of hydrogen peroxide, just enough to keep the wound clean without harming new tissue.
And it keeps the wound moist. A moist wound builds new tissue faster and with less scarring than one that dries and crusts over.
That is why medical honey is still used in hospitals, seventy years after antibiotics were supposed to make it redundant.
The content here is general knowledge and folk herbal lore, not medical treatment. In illness, pregnancy, breastfeeding or alongside medication: always talk to your doctor first.