Mandal Manisha Deb, Mandal Shyamapada
Department of Physiology and Biophysics, KPC Medical College and Hospital, 1F Raja S C Mallick Road, Jadavpur, Kolkata-700 032, India.
Asian Pac J Trop Biomed. 2011 Apr;1(2):154-60. doi: 10.1016/S2221-1691(11)60016-6.
Indeed, medicinal importance of honey has been documented in the world's oldest medical literatures, and since the ancient times, it has been known to possess antimicrobial property as well as wound-healing activity. The healing property of honey is due to the fact that it offers antibacterial activity, maintains a moist wound condition, and its high viscosity helps to provide a protective barrier to prevent infection. Its immunomodulatory property is relevant to wound repair too. The antimicrobial activity in most honeys is due to the enzymatic production of hydrogen peroxide. However, another kind of honey, called non-peroxide honey (viz., manuka honey), displays significant antibacterial effects even when the hydrogen peroxide activity is blocked. Its mechanism may be related to the low pH level of honey and its high sugar content (high osmolarity) that is enough to hinder the growth of microbes. The medical grade honeys have potent in vitro bactericidal activity against antibiotic-resistant bacteria causing several life-threatening infections to humans. But, there is a large variation in the antimicrobial activity of some natural honeys, which is due to spatial and temporal variation in sources of nectar. Thus, identification and characterization of the active principle(s) may provide valuable information on the quality and possible therapeutic potential of honeys (against several health disorders of humans), and hence we discussed the medicinal property of honeys with emphasis on their antibacterial activities.
事实上，蜂蜜的药用价值在世界上最古老的医学文献中就有记载，自古以来，人们就知道它具有抗菌特性和伤口愈合活性。蜂蜜的愈合特性源于它具有抗菌活性、能保持伤口湿润，且其高粘度有助于提供一道防止感染的保护屏障。它的免疫调节特性也与伤口修复有关。大多数蜂蜜中的抗菌活性是由于酶促产生过氧化氢。然而，另一种蜂蜜，即非过氧化物蜂蜜（如麦卢卡蜂蜜），即使在过氧化氢活性被阻断时也显示出显著的抗菌效果。其机制可能与蜂蜜的低pH值及其高糖含量（高渗透压）有关，这足以阻碍微生物的生长。医用级蜂蜜对导致人类多种危及生命感染的耐药细菌具有强大的体外杀菌活性。但是，一些天然蜂蜜的抗菌活性存在很大差异，这是由于花蜜来源的空间和时间变化所致。因此，活性成分的鉴定和表征可能为蜂蜜的质量和可能的治疗潜力（针对人类的多种健康疾病）提供有价值的信息，因此我们重点讨论了蜂蜜的药用特性及其抗菌活性。
