Honey has many medicinal properties and in Ayurveda Sushruta has described sixty measures for wound healing. Honey is one of them and very effective in wound healing. Application of honey on wound is very helpful in treatment of any kind of wounds even it can cure chronic wounds with support of other ayurvedic medicines.
Many research has been done on honey to examine benefits of honey topical uses and found effective because of following properties.
Honey is hygroscopic in nature, with a pH of 3.2~4.5. Due to it's acidic nature it prevents colonization and bacterial growth in tissues. Most microorganisms do not grow in pure honey because of its low water activity. Presence of hydrogen peroxide in Honey makes it antibacterial and high osmotic pressure contribute to the antibacterial effect of honey.
Honey can be applied alone or it can be applied by mixing cow ghee(clarified butter of cow milk) into honey.
How to use honey on wounds?
Normal cases
For small wounds just apply honey after cleaning wounds or mix cow ghee in honey and apply it on wound and if required you can wrap soft bandage also.
Chronic Wounds
Many people suffering with disease like diabetes, people hypersensitive to ibuprofen and cotrimoxazole, ages people faces problem in wound healing. For these type of people ayurvedic medicines and honey is very effective to treat wounds. For these kind of people use following method and medicines along with honey application.
Every morning the wound was first cleaned with freshly prepared lukewarm Neem bark decoction then apply adequate quantity of honey to cover wounds and then cover it with loose bandage. Along with this these type of people should take following ayurvedic herbal preparation.
- Yashtimadhu (Glycyrrhiza glabra Linn.) 2 g
- Shatavari (Asparagus racemosus Willd.) 2 g
- Gokshura (Tribulus terrestris) 2 g
- Guduchi (Giloy) 2 g
Take above herbs powder with lukewarm water 2 time daily.
Note: For chronic wounds treatment it may take 5-7 weeks or even more.
Ref: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3059452/