“There is now a sizeable evidence that honey is a natural immune booster, natural anti-inflammatory agent, natural antimicrobial agent, natural cancer “vaccine,” and natural promoter for healing chronic ulcers and wounds” (Othman, 2012).
ANTIBACTERIAL PROPERTIES OF HONEY
- “Unlike conventional antibiotics, honey only targets pathogenic bacteria without disturbing the growth of normal gastrointestinal flora when taken orally. It also contains prebiotics, probiotics, and zinc and enhances the growth of beneficial gut flora” (Hussain, 2018).
- “Research has shown that manuka honey has superior antimicrobial properties that can be used with success in the treatment of wound healing, peptic ulcers and bacterial gastro-enteritis…. Thirty volunteers were randomly allocated to chew or suck either the manuka honey product, or sugarless chewing gum, for 10 minutes, three times a day, after each meal. Plaque and gingival bleeding scores were recorded before and after the 21-day trial period. Analysis of the results indicated that there were statistically highly significant reductions in the mean plaque scores (0.99 reduced to 0.65; p= 0.001), and the percentage of bleeding sites (48% reduced to 17%; p= 0.001), in the manuka honey group, with no significant changes in the control group” (English, 2004).
- A study published in the Journal Frontiers in microbiology entitled Therapeutic Manuka Honey: N Longer So Alternative“found manuka honey can effectively inhibit all problematic bacterial pathogens tested” (Carter, 2016). “The current and growing crisis of antibiotic resistance has revived interest in the use of honey, both as an effective agent in its own right and as a therapeutic lead to develop new methods of treatment” (Carter, 2016).
CANCER AND HONEY
- “In this study, we investigated the antiproliferative activity of manuka honey on three different cancer cell lines, murine melanoma (B16.F1) and colorectal carcinoma (CT26) as well as human breast cancer (MCF-7) cells in vitro. The data demonstrate that manuka honey has potent anti-proliferative effect on all three cancer cell lines in a time- and dose-dependent manner, being effective at concentrations as low as 0.6% (w/v)” (Fernandez-Cabezudo et. al, 2013).
- “revealed the honey sample containing higher phenolic content showed significant anti-proliferative effect against colon cancer cells.” (Jaganathan, 2009)
- “TH (Tualang honey) has significant anticancer activity against human breast and cervical cancer cell lines.” (Fauzi, 2013).
REFERENCES:
Carter, D. A., Blair, S. E., Cokcetin, N. N., Bouzo, D., Brooks, P., Schothauer, R., & Harry, E. J. (2016). Therapeutic Manuka Honey: No Longer So Alternative. Frontiers in microbiology, 7, 569. https://doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2016.00569
English, H. K., Pack, A. R., & Molan, P. C. (2004). The effects of manuka honey on plaque and gingivitis: a pilot study. Journal of the International Academy of Periodontology, 6(2), 63–67
Fauzi, A. N., Norazmi, M. N., & Yaacob, N. S. (2011). Tualang honey induces apoptosis and disrupts the mitochondrial membrane potential of human breast and cervical cancer cell lines. Food and chemical toxicology : an international journal published for the British Industrial Biological Research Association, 49(4), 871–878. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fct.2010.12.010
Fernandez-Cabezudo, M. J., El-Kharrag, R., Torab, F., Bashir, G., George, J. A., El-Taji, H., & al-Ramadi, B. K. (2013). Intravenous administration of manuka honey inhibits tumor growth and improves host survival when used in combination with chemotherapy in a melanoma mouse model. PloS one, 8(2), e55993. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0055993
Hussain, M. (2018). Role of Honey in Topical and Systemic Bacterial Infections. The Journal Of Alternative And Complementary Medicine, 24(1), 15-24. https://doi.org/10.1089/acm.2017.0017
Othman, N. (2012). Honey and Cancer: Sustainable Inverse Relationship Particularly for Developing Nations—A Review. Evidence-Based Complementary And Alternative Medicine, 2012, 1-10. https://doi.org/10.1155/2012/410406