Rising cost of honey production, reduction of honey prices and global competition has meant that very few Canadian honey producers are profitable, leading to a drastic decrease in the number of commercial beekeepers. There are currently about 8,000 beekeepers in Canada, with the majority of them (2,600) living in Ontario.
One solution to help bring viability back to the domestic honey industry is to develop new products and niche markets. One high-value option is the use of honey in the treatment of burns and wounds. Honey has been used as a medicine from ancient times by many old cultures, including the Egyptians, Persians and Chinese. Hippocrates (357 BC) and Aristotle (384-322 BC) both wrote accounts of the use of therapeutic honey.
Now modern medicine is looking in a similar direction. Honey has been found to contain varying levels of hydrogen peroxide which is produced by the enzyme glucose oxidase, an agent specifically added by the bees. What is really exciting researchers though is the discovery that some types of honey also contain an additional antibacterial component -- a "non-hydrogen peroxide”. This means the honey doesn’t break down and instead remains active under wound dressings and diffuses deeper into skin tissues.
Partial funding of $59,000 for the project is being provided through Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada's Advancing Canadian Agriculture and Agri-Food (ACAAF) program. In Ontario, ACAAF is delivered by the Agricultural Adaptation Council through the CanAdvance Program. The development of this industry in Ontario is being led by Brock University researcher, Dr. Katrina Brudzynski. A well-known investigator into honey as an antibacterial agent, she has now turned her attention to honey-containing wound dressings. According to her, “Benefits of honey applications have been clearly demonstrated in clinical practices. Most importantly, honey has been shown to be potent against at least two anti-biotic resistant bacteria which plague hospitals.”
For more information on this and other research projects being undertaken by Ontario farmers, please contact:
Ian Barrett, Communications Manager, Agricultural Adaptation Council
Ph: 519-822-7554
E-mail: ibarrett@adaptcouncil.org
Website: [url=http://www.adaptcouncil.org]http://www.adaptcouncil.org[/url] OR www.takeanewapproach.ca
