Does Raw Honey Have Real Antibacterial or Wound-Healing Properties?

Honey has been used on wounds for thousands of years, and modern laboratories have confirmed that many honeys can stop bacteria growing in a dish. That does not mean that the honey in your kitchen cupboard is a wound treatment, and it does not mean that "raw" honey is more antibacterial than any other. This page separates what has been shown in the laboratory, what has been shown in patients, and what it means for a jar of honey at home.

Why honey can stop bacteria growing

Honey is a complex mixture of more than 100 components, and its antibacterial activity comes from several factors working together, according to reviews of the subject, including a 2012 review in IUBMB Life by Kwakman and Zaat. They include:

• Osmotic stress. Honey is a supersaturated sugar solution with little free water, which makes it hard for bacteria to grow.
• Acidity. Its pH is low, between about 3.2 and 4.5.
• Hydrogen peroxide. A bee-derived enzyme, glucose oxidase, produces hydrogen peroxide when honey is diluted.
• Methylglyoxal. This compound is found in high amounts in Manuka honey and gives it activity that does not depend on peroxide.
• Bee defensin-1 and plant compounds. A bee antimicrobial peptide and various phenolic compounds also contribute, and researchers have found other, unidentified antibacterial components in Manuka honey as well.

Which of these dominates depends on the honey: the flowers the bees visited, the bees' enzymes, and how it was handled. Laboratory studies have found that Manuka honey can inhibit bacteria including antibiotic-resistant strains such as MRSA, and that some other honeys can also show useful activity in a dish. Honeys as a class have real laboratory activity, but activity in a dish depends on the specific honey and test and does not carry over automatically to a person.

From the dish to the patient: what the trials show

The more important question is whether honey helps real wounds. The best summary is a Cochrane systematic review, "Honey as a topical treatment for wounds", updated in 2015 by Jull and colleagues. It found 26 eligible trials with a total of 3,011 participants, covering minor acute wounds, burns and chronic wounds such as leg ulcers and diabetic foot ulcers. Its main findings were:

• There is high-quality evidence, from two trials with 992 participants, that honey dressings heal partial-thickness burns faster than conventional dressings, by about 4.7 days on average (95% confidence interval 4.28 to 5.09 days).
• In one trial of 50 people, infected post-operative wounds healed faster with honey than with antiseptic washes and gauze (moderate-quality evidence).
• For venous leg ulcers, diabetic foot ulcers, minor acute wounds and several other wound types, the evidence was of low or very low quality and the effects were unclear.

The review's own conclusion was cautious: because of the mixed populations and comparators and the mostly low quality of the evidence, it was difficult to draw overall conclusions, and beyond burns and infected surgical wounds the evidence did not form "a robust basis for decision making". A 2017 Cochrane review of antiseptics for burns, by Norman and colleagues, added that honey reduced time to healing by about 5.3 days compared with non-antibacterial treatments (high-certainty evidence, four studies with 1,156 participants, though the comparators included unconventional treatments such as amniotic membrane and potato peel), and that burns treated with honey were probably more likely to heal over time than those treated with topical antibiotics (moderate-certainty evidence, five studies with 140 participants).

In plain terms: there is good evidence for honey dressings on partial-thickness burns, some for infected surgical wounds, and little that is reliable elsewhere. And those were honey dressings used in clinical care.

Why you should not treat wounds with jar honey

• It is not the same product. The trials tested honey dressings used in care. Honey sold as food is not made for open wounds, and honey can carry botulism spores: global surveys found Clostridium botulinum in about 4% of honey samples.
• Activity varies widely. Honeys differ, and a laboratory result for one type does not tell you about your jar. We have not had our Raw Organic Honey tested for antibacterial activity, and we do not claim that it works on wounds.
• Delay is risky. Deep, dirty, infected or fast-spreading wounds, animal bites, burns bigger than a small area, and any wound in someone with diabetes or poor circulation need medical care. Redness spreading, pus, fever or increasing pain are warning signs.
• Not for babies. Honey of any kind should never be given to infants under 12 months, as we explain in our honey and babies page.

For a minor cut, ordinary first aid remains the standard advice.

Is raw honey more antibacterial?

Not by definition. "Raw" describes how honey has been handled, not how antibacterial it is. Activity depends mainly on the type of honey and its composition, and some processing steps, such as heat, can affect the enzymes involved. We cover what raw and processed honey really differ in, and what the honey standards require, in our raw versus processed honey guide. A jar labelled raw is not a proven antibacterial.

Eating honey for germs

A spoonful stirred into tea is diluted, and we found no evidence that eating honey prevents or treats bacterial infections. It has some research support for soothing coughs in children over one year old, which we discuss in our honey per day guide. That is comfort, not an antibiotic. See a doctor for a sore throat that lasts, a fever, or difficulty swallowing.

This page is general information, not medical advice.

Sources

• Kwakman PHS, Zaat SAJ. Antibacterial components of honey. IUBMB Life 2012.
• Jull AB, Cullum N, Dumville JC, Westby MJ, Deshpande S, Walker N. Honey as a topical treatment for wounds. Cochrane Database Syst Rev 2015;(3):CD005083.
• Norman G, Christie J, Liu Z, et al. Antiseptics for burns. Cochrane Database Syst Rev 2017;(7):CD011821.
• Infant botulism: in search of Clostridium botulinum spores. Curr Microbiol 2024 (prevalence in honey).