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Role of honey as adjuvant therapy in patients with sore throat

DOI:10.5455/njppp.2017.7.1233125122016
Authors:
Manpreet Singh Nanda at Maharishi Markandeshwar Medical college and Hospital Solan
Manpreet Singh Nanda
  • Maharishi Markandeshwar Medical college and Hospital Solan
Shiv Mittal
Shiv Mittal
Shiv Mittal
  • This person is not on ResearchGate, or hasn't claimed this research yet.
Vipan Gupta at Maharishi Markandeshwar medical college kumarhatti solan Himachal pardesh India
Vipan Gupta
  • Maharishi Markandeshwar medical college kumarhatti solan Himachal pardesh India
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Background: Honey is a natural product which has been used since ages for curing of various ailments. Aims and Objectives: To evaluate the effect of honey for control of infection and inflammation in patients with sore throat. Materials and Methods: A total of 200 patients with sore throat were taken up for the study. 100 patients, in the study group, were given one tablespoon of honey twice a day along with anti-inflammatory drugs, antibiotics, and antiseptic gargles. Remaining 100 patients in control group were given other same medications without honey. Patients were evaluated after 5, 10 and 15 days for throat congestion, fever, pain, patient satisfaction, and other criteria. Results: There was faster relief of signs and symptoms of sore throat in the study group as compared to control group. There was greater patient satisfaction in the study group. Conclusion: Honey is effective in faster recovery of signs and symptoms of sore throat having antibacterial and anti-inflammatory properties without causing any side effects.
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1 National Journal of Physiology, Pharmacy and Pharmacology 2017 | Vol 7 | Issue 4 (Online First)
RESEARCH ARTICLE
Role of honey as adjuvant therapy in patients with sore throat
Manpreet Singh Nanda1, Shiv Parshad Mittal2, Vipan Gupta1
1Department of Otolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery, Maharishi Markandeshwar Medical College and Hospital, Kumarhatti, Solan,
Himachal Pradesh, India, 2Department of Medicine, Maharishi Markandeshwar Medical College and Hospital, Kumarhatti, Solan, Himachal
Pradesh, India
Correspondence to: Manpreet Singh Nanda, E-mail: u_tell_me_80@yahoo.co.in
Received: December 02, 2016; Accepted: December 25, 2016
ABSTRACT
Background: Honey is a natural product which has been used since ages for curing of various
ailments. Aims and Objectives: To evaluate the effect of honey for control of infection and inflammation in patients with
sore throat. Materials and Methods: A total of 200 patients with sore throat were taken up for the study. 100 patients,
in the study group, were given one tablespoon of honey twice a day along with anti-inflammatory drugs, antibiotics, and
antiseptic gargles. Remaining 100 patients in control group were given other same medications without honey. Patients were
evaluated after 5, 10 and 15 days for throat congestion, fever, pain, patient satisfaction, and other criteria. Results: There
was faster relief of signs and symptoms of sore throat in the study group as compared to control group. There was greater
patient satisfaction in the study group. Conclusion: Honey is effective in faster recovery of signs and symptoms of sore
throat having antibacterial and anti-inflammatory properties without causing any side effects.
KEY WORDS: Fever; Honey; Inflammation; Pharyngitis; Tonsillitis
INTRODUCTION
Medicinal importance of honey is known since ancient
times. It is said to possess antimicrobial property as well
as wound healing activity.[1] Honey though mainly made up
of sugars and water also contains vitamin B complex and
C with lots of minerals such as calcium, potassium, and
zinc.[2] Its broad spectrum antibacterial property against
pathogenic bacteria and oral bacteria like staphylococcus
and pseudomonas has been proved.[3] Honey is hygroscopic
so it can draw moisture out of the environment and
dehydrate bacteria and its high sugar content and low-level
pH also prevent microbes from growth.[4] Honey is known
National Journal of Physiology, Pharmacy and Pharmacology Online 2016. © 2016 Manpreet Singh Nanda et al. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative
Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creative commons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), allowing third partiesto copy and redistribute the materialin any medium or for mat and to
remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially, provided the original work is properly cited and states its license.
for its anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties in
literature.[5]
Sore throat is one of the common symptoms of patients
visiting our ear, nose and throat (ENT) outpatient department
(OPD). It can be because of various inflammatory and
infective causes such as allergies, reflux disease, sinus
drainage, and tonsillitis. Sore throat can be of viral or infective
etiology.[6] Various treatments tried for sore throat have not
given satisfactory results. In various studies, local residents
have been found to use honey for pharyngitis and respiratory
ailments.[7] However, no scientific data are available in
literature regarding the same. Hence, we plan to conduct this
study to find out if honey has some role as an antibacterial,
anti-inflammatory, and antioxidant in treatment of sore throat
MATERIALS AND METHODS
This study was conducted on the patients visiting ENT and
medicine OPD of our medical college and hospital with
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DOI: 10.5455/njppp.2017.7.1233125122016
Nanda et al. Honey as adjuvant therapy in patients with sore throat
National Journal of Physiology, Pharmacy and Pharmacology 2
Volume 2 | Issue 4 | Sep-Oct 20152017 | Vol 7 | Issue 4 (Online First)
symptoms of sore throat from December 2015 to November
2016. 200 patients with signs and symptoms of sore throat
aged above 18 years of age were enrolled in this study after
taking written consent from the patients. The approval of
Institutional Ethical Committee was taken. Exclusion criteria
were patients with a history of diabetes, history of pollens
and bees allergy, allergic to honey those who were already
on treatment for sore throat and those with dislike to intake
honey. All the patients were examined and followed up by the
authors performing this study.
The patients were randomized alternatively into study and
control group. 100 patients in the study group were advised
to intake one tablespoon of honey twice a day slowly over
few minutes along with anti-inflammatory drugs, antibiotics,
and antiseptic gargles. Remaining 100 patients in the control
group were put only on antibiotics, anti-inflammatory drugs
and gargles without honey. The above treatments were given
maximum for 15 days or till the patients fully recovered from
sore throat whichever is earlier.
The patients were assessed after 5 days, 10 days, and
15 days after starting the treatment. The assessment points
were as follows:
1. Time to recovery - time taken to resolution of all signs
and symptoms of sore throat
2. The patients were assessed for subjective symptoms like
pain in throat, difficulty in swallowing and fever at each
visit
3. The oropharynx was examined at each visit for congestion
and other signs of sore throat
4. Complications - The patients were assessed for need for
hospitalization during the treatment period due to any
complications of sore throat such as high-grade fever,
dehydration, and severe painful swallowing
5. The patient satisfaction was assessed according
to LIKERT SCALE as 1 - completely satisfied,
2 - somewhat satisfied, 3 - no change/painful, 4 - not
satisfied/increased pain at each visit
6. The patients were enquired about any side effects on
taking honey.
RESULTS
A total of 200 patients who gave consent were enrolled in
this study. All the patients had complaints of sore throat. Data
were collected and analyzed. Patients above the age group of
18 years were taken in the study. There was an equal incidence
of sore throat in all the age groups. Male and female patients
were almost equal (Table 1).
About 200 patients with sore throat were taken up for the study.
100 patients in the study group were given one tablespoon
of honey twice a day along with anti-inflammatory drugs,
antibiotics, and antiseptic gargles. Remaining 100 patients
in control group were given other same medications without
honey. Patients were evaluated after 5, 10 and 15 days for
throat congestion, fever, pain, patient satisfaction, and other
criteria.
There was faster recovery from sore throat in study group
using honey than control group (Table 2).
Regarding individual signs and symptoms, there was
much faster recovery from fever within 5 days in the study
group as compared to control group (Table 3). The signs of
oropharyngeal congestion also had faster recovery in the
study group. There was no significant difference in patients
lost to follow-up in both groups (Table 3).
Regarding complications of sore throat, almost equal number
of patients in both groups needed hospitalization due to high
grade fever, severe odynophagia, dehydration, or other upper
respiratory tract complications (Figure 1).
Regarding patient satisfaction, patients in study group with
honey were more satisfied as compared to control group.
These results were more evident at first follow-up visit after
5 days (Table 4).
There were no side effects noted of honey in patients using
honey in the study group.
DISCUSSION
The role of honey as anti-inflammatory, antibacterial, and
antioxidant agent was investigated in this study. The aim of
the study was to evaluate honey in controlling inflammation
and infection in patients with sore throat and its affect on
patient satisfaction and to study its adverse effects if any.
We have used commercially available honey for this study.
All the patients were initially examined and followed up
Table 1: Age and sex distribution
Age group Male Female Total
18-40 years 43 39 82
41-60 years 33 37 70
>60 years 23 25 48
Total 99 101 200
Table 2: Time to total recovery from sore throat
Time taken Study
group (n = 100)
Control
group (n = 100)
<5 days 45 38
5-10 days 28 32
10-15 days 11 14
Not recovered after 15 days 7 8
Lost to follow-up 9 8
Nanda et al. Honey as adjuvant therapy in patients with sore throat
3 National Journal of Physiology, Pharmacy and Pharmacology 2017 | Vol 7 | Issue 4 (Online First)
by the authors performing this study in ENT and medicine
OPD. As it included subjective criteria, only adults above
age of 18 years were included in this study. There was faster
relief of signs and symptoms of sore throat in study group
as compared to control group. There was greater patient
satisfaction in study group.
Sore throat is clinical evidence of tonsillitis or pharyngitis
and is very common in everyone’s life.[8] According to Bisno
44% of patients with sore throat had infective etiology.[9] In
our study also we found that 74 patients (37%) had fever
which is a sign of infection (Table 3). Other causes of sore
throat according to literature are allergies and reflux disease.
According to various studies recurrence rate of sore throat
varies between 16% and 20% and need for hospitalization due
to complications are around 3-4%.[9] In our study, 9 patients
(5%) needed to be hospitalized due to causes such as high-
grade fever, severe odynophagia, dehydration and other
pulmonary complications (Figure 1). 15 (8%) patients in our
study had residual or recurrent disease even after 15 days of
treatment (Table 1).
Honey is a common household product used since
ages for various treatments and is easily accessible and
nonexpensive.[10] It is made up of 181 components[11] mainly
composing of fructose, glucose, fructooligosaccharides,
amino acids, vitamins, minerals, enzymes, and water.[12] The
main enzymes in honey are invertase, amylase and glucose
oxidase.[13] Glucose oxidase produces hydrogen peroxide
which has antimicrobial activity. In history Indian, Egyptian
and Greek texts have shown use of honey as antiseptic.[14]
Van Ketel, in 1892, first recognized antimicrobial activity of
honey.[15] Honey by drawing moisture out dehydrates bacteria.
It is pH and sugar content also inhibits micro-organisms.[16] In
a study by Olaitan et al., authors found honey to be inhibitory
on both Gram-positive and Gram-negative, aerobes and
anaerobes.[13] In our study, we found faster recovery of fever
(infection) in study group using honey as compared to control
group without honey within 5 days of treatment (Table 3).
According to Al-Waili and Boni honey ingestion has anti-
inflammatory effect.[17] Honey is said to reduce the activity
of cyclooxygenase-1 and cyclo oxygenase-2, thus showing
anti-inflammatory effect.[18] There is less edema, better
wound epithelization and tissue regeneration with honey.[17]
In our study, awe found faster recovery from oropharyngeal
congestion in study group using honey (Table 3). Honey
reduces prostaglandin E2 and alpha 2 in blood leading to
pain relief.[19] In our study, we found better relief and greater
patient satisfaction in study group using honey (Table 4). The
satisfactory results were achieved faster in the study group
as compared to control group, and there was faster recovery
using honey (Table 2).
Table 3: Relief of signs of sore throat
Signs Initial visit 1st follow-up (after
5 days)
2nd follow-up (after
10 days)
3rd follow-up (after
15 days)
Study
group
Control
group
Study
group
Control
group
Study
group
Control
group
Study
group
Control
group
Fever 38 36 18 26 5 7 2 2
Oropharyngeal congestion 100 100 48 56 18 22 7 8
Lost to follow-up - - 769898
Table 4: Patient satisfaction
Patient satisfaction 1st follow-up (after
5 days)
2nd follow-up (after
10 days)
3rd follow-up (after
15 days)
Study
group
Control
group
Study
group
Control
group
Study
group
Control
group
Completely satisfied 24 18 64 57 79 77
Somewhat satisfied 24 23 8 11 3 3
No change 20 21 7 9 3 3
Not satisfi ed (increased pain) 25 32 12 15 6 9
Figure 1: Need for hospitalization
Nanda et al. Honey as adjuvant therapy in patients with sore throat
National Journal of Physiology, Pharmacy and Pharmacology 4
Volume 2 | Issue 4 | Sep-Oct 20152017 | Vol 7 | Issue 4 (Online First)
The side effects of honey are rare. It can cause stinging pain
due to acidic pH.[20] No permanent resistance to honey has
been noted.[21] In our study, no side effects of honey were
noted.
There is scope of further studies regarding honey in other
infective disorders. There is also scope of study also including
children and seeing the affect of honey on them which could
be a limitation of our study. There are various subtypes of
honey available and comparative studies on each of them
could be done in future.
CONCLUSION
Honey is an easily available household product which has
anti-inflammatory, anti-infective and antioxidant properties
in the treatment of sore throat. Honey leads to faster recovery
of signs and symptoms of sore throat. Patient satisfaction is
much higher when honey is added to the treatment. The signs
and symptoms of pain, fever, and oropharyngeal congestion
recover much faster when honey is added to the therapy.
There are no side effects or resistance on intake of honey and
is considered as a safe remedy. Hence, we can conclude that
intake of honey as adjuvant therapy would benefit patients
with sore throat.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
We would like to thank our Medical College and Hospital
for its support and the patients for cooperating with the study
protocol.
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How to cite this article: Nanda MS, Mittal SP, Gupta V. Role
of honey as adjuvant therapy in patients with sore throat. Natl J
Physiol Pharm Pharmacol 2017;7 (Online First): Doi: 10.5455/
njppp.2017.7.1233125122016
Source of Support: Nil, Conflict of Interest: None declared.
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... (Supplement 5: Table 5.2). The type of honey was not specified in three RCTs [34][35][36] and subgroup analyses comparing efficacy of different honey types was not 13 conducted due to insufficient numbers. Adverse events were analyzed per-participant, except for honey when compared to placebo for the duration of cough in children, in which the most frequent adverse event (vomiting) was synthesized. ...
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Article
  • Aug 2020
Background Antibiotic over prescription for upper respiratory tract infections (URTIs) in primary care exacerbates antimicrobial resistance. There is a need for effective alternatives to antibiotic prescribing. Honey is a lay remedy for URTIs, and has an emerging evidence base for its use. Honey has antimicrobial properties, and guidelines recommended honey for acute cough in children. Objectives To evaluate the effectiveness of honey for symptomatic relief in URTIs. Methods A systematic review and meta-analysis. We searched Pubmed, Embase, Web of Science, AMED, Cab abstracts, Cochrane Library, LILACS, and CINAHL with a combination of keywords and MeSH terms. Results We identified 1345 unique records, and 14 studies were included. Overall risk of bias was moderate. Compared with usual care, honey improved combined symptom score (three studies, mean difference −3.96, 95% CI −5.42 to −2.51, I ² =0%), cough frequency (eight studies, standardised mean difference (SMD) −0.36, 95% CI −0.50 to −0.21, I ² =0%) and cough severity (five studies, SMD −0.44, 95% CI −0.64 to −0.25, I ² =20%). We combined two studies comparing honey with placebo for relieving combined symptoms (SMD −0.63, 95% CI −1.44 to 0.18, I ² =91%). Conclusions Honey was superior to usual care for the improvement of symptoms of upper respiratory tract infections. It provides a widely available and cheap alternative to antibiotics. Honey could help efforts to slow the spread of antimicrobial resistance, but further high quality, placebo controlled trials are needed. PROSPERO registration No Study ID, CRD42017067582 on PROSPERO: International prospective register of systematic reviews ( https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/prospero/ ).
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A RANDOMIZED CLINICAL STUDY ON POSTTONSILLECTOMY PAIN RELIEF WITH HONEY
Article
  • Sep 2023
Background: Tonsillectomy with or without adenoidectomy is one of the most common surgical procedures performed worldwide, especially for children. Oral honey administration following tonsillectomy in pediatric cases may reduce the need for analgesics via relieving postoperative pain. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effe Objectives: cts of honey on the incidence and severity of postoperative pain in patients undergoing tonsillectomy. Patients and Methods: Sixty consecutive tonsillectomy patients randomized to two groups. The acetaminophen group was Interventions: treated with antibiotics (amoxicillinclavulonic acid), acetaminophen and placebo,acetaminophen-plus-honey group was treated with antibiotics (amoxicillinclavulonic acid), acetaminophen, and honey. Visual analogue scale (VAS) was applied for subjective assessment of postoperative pains, while the number of painkillers taken daily and awakening at night due to pain were used for objective assessment. The amount of epithelization was used for assessment of tonsillary fossa recovery. Outcome measures: The difference between acetaminophen and acetaminophenplus-honey groups was statistically significant both in terms of VAS and number of painkillers taken within the first 2 postoperative days ( p < 0.001). Although there was no statistically significant difference between groups regarding the VAS scores on the 3rd postoperative day and after, the number of painkillers taken differed significantly until the 8th postoperative day ( p < 0.001 for first 7 postoperative days; p = 0.003 for 8th day). No significant difference was found between groups regarding the number of awakening at night (p = 0.36). Tonsillary fossa epithelization was more rapid in the acetaminophen-plushoney group ( p < 0.001). The difference between acetaminophen and acetaminophen plus honey groups w Results: as statistically significant both for visual analogue scale (VAS), and number of painkillers taken within the first three postoperative days. The consumption of painkillers differed significantly in every five postoperative days. No significant difference was found between groups regarding the number of awaking at night. Postoperative honey Conclusions: administration reduces postoperative pain and analgesic requirements in patients after tonsillectomy. As the side effects of honey appear to be negligible, consideration of its routine usage seems to be beneficial along with routine analgesics
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Electronic Word of Mouth Pemasaran Madu Era Covid-19 di Wilayah Malang
Article
Full-text available
  • Oct 2021
Madu menjadi produk primadona pada saat pandemik Covid 19. Madu merupakan produk alami yang terbukti memiliki dampak yang baik bagi kesehatan dan dapat menjaga imunitas tubuh. Ulasan pada google dapat kita sebut sebagai electronic word of mounth (eWOM). eWOM yang saat ini kita kenal dahulu kita sebut sebagai WOM merupakan pendapat dari seseorang terhadap suatu produk yang digunakan sebagai cara untuk menilai suatu produk. Produk yang memiliki penilaian serta ulasan yang baik secara tidak langsung akan meningkatkan pemasaran produk tersebut serta reputasi dari penjual produk karena masyarakat cenderung mempercayai rekomendasi oleh orang yang dipercaya seperti artis, tetangga, kerabat terdekat dan komentar yang disertakan bukti gambar atau video pada ulasan google. Wilayah Malang Jawa Timur memiliki penjual maupun produsen madu. Beberapa penjual madu di Wilayah Malang telah memasuki penjualan secara online dengan menampilkan usaha pada Google. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk menganalisis mengenai eWOM produk madu di wilayah Malang serta mendeskripsikan mengenai rating dan ulasan yang terdapat pada mesin pencari Google terhadap produsen dan penjual madu di wilayah Malang.
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Health Benefit, Traditional, and Modern Uses of Natural Honey (Sprnger)
Chapter
Full-text available
  • Aug 2021
Honey is a sweet gift of nature to mankind. It is a miraculous liquid produced from the nectar of flower by the action of honeybees. Honey provides multiple nutritional and curative benefits owing to its chemical composition and physical properties which in turn depend on floral source, geographical origin, processing, and storage. Chemically, honey is a concentrated carbohydrate solution. In addition to sugars, small amounts of minerals, proteins, vitamins, acids, and antioxidants are also present that impart biological attributes to honey, i.e., antimicrobial, antioxidant, and anti-inflammatory properties. These biological properties are responsible for its health-promoting effects. History of honey is as old as human civilization on this earth. Several Stone Age evidence show that the practice of beekeeping and honey harvesting was performed since ever. During ancient civilization, honey was used as a sweetener in various foods, sacred products for religious offerings, eye cosmetics, ointment to treat wounds and burns as well as medicine to cure disease and disorders of the digestive system and eye ailments. In the modern era, clinical and laboratory studies have scientifically proved the traditionally claimed nutritional and medicinal attributes of honey. Recently, honey is used in various commercially available products as sweetener, wound healing ointment, food preservative, prebiotic, in skincare products, and as medicine to treat cough and eye ailments. The present chapter is intended to provide information on multiple health benefits of honey as well as its utilization in traditional and modern culture.
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Bee Venom Therapy and Low Dose Naltrexone for Treatment of Multiple Sclerosis
Article
Full-text available
  • Jan 2006
Treatments for multiple sclerosis are still being investigated despite the long history of the disease. Some disease-modifying drugs were introduced into clinical practice during the last decade. However, their high cost, low safety profile, and most important, limited benefit drive many patients to discontinue these treatments and seek alternatives. This paper describes two alternative treatments that appear particularly effective — bee venom therapy, and low dose naltrexone.
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Honey: Its medicinal property and antibacterial activity
Article
Full-text available
  • Apr 2011
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.
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Absense of bacterial resistance to medical-grade Manuka honey
Article
Full-text available
Clinical use of honey in the topical treatment of wounds has increased in Europe and North America since licensed wound care products became available in 2004 and 2007, respectively. Honey-resistant bacteria have not been isolated from wounds, but there is a need to investigate whether honey has the potential to select for honey resistance. Two cultures of bacteria from reference collections (Staphylococcus aureus NCTC 10017 and Pseudomonas aeruginosa ATCC 27853) and four cultures isolated from wounds (Escherichia coli, methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA), Pseudomonas aeruginosa and S. epidermidis) were exposed to sub-lethal concentrations of manuka honey in continuous and stepwise training experiments to determine whether the susceptibility to honey diminished. Reduced susceptibilities to manuka honey in the test organisms during long-term stepwise resistance training were found, but these changes were not permanent and honey-resistant mutants were not detected. The risk of bacteria acquiring resistance to honey will be low if high concentrations are maintained clinically.
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The Efficacy of Honey Dressing on Chronic Wounds and Ulcers
Chapter
  • Jan 2012
This chapter will describe the results of a clinical observation study on the wound healing property of honey conducted over a period of five years. 102 patients with chronic wounds and ulcers that have failed to heal under conventional treatment were treated with topical honey application. All patients were admitted to University Malaya Medical Centre prior to honey dressing. These patients had undergone conventional wound dressing which include washing with saline and dressing with povidine-iodine and were also given systemic antibiotics. Some patients had also been exposed to the most modern wound dressing materials available in the market. Topical daily application of honey renders the wounds of different aetiology sterile within 2 weeks. And all wounds were healed with 100 % success within a remarkable period of between 4 to 7 weeks. The results clearly indicated the superiority of honey dressing in treating chronic wounds and ulcers compared to conventional wound dressing procedures. Honey dressing has great potential in wound healing and is also economical.
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Corticosteroids as standalone or add-on treatment for sore throat
Article
  • Oct 2012
Sore throat is a common condition. Patients often receive antibiotics for sore throat, which is thought to contribute to resistance to antibiotics in individuals and the community. Sore throats are painful because of the inflammation of the lining of the throat. Corticosteroids reduce inflammation and because they act on the upper respiratory tract in other conditions, may also be beneficial in sore throat. This systematic review combined the results of eight trials which looked at this question, including a total of 743 participants. Patients taking corticosteroids were three times more likely to experience complete resolution of their sore throat symptoms by 24 hours compared to those taking placebo. In addition, corticosteroids improved the time to onset of symptom relief and the time to complete resolution of symptoms, although the trials were not consistent for these outcomes. Adverse events, relapse rates and recurrence rates were not different for corticosteroid compared to placebo groups. Limitations of the review include the absence of any trials set in Europe and the fact that only two trials addressed the question in children. As all the included trials also gave antibiotics to all participants, we recommend that future research should examine the benefit of corticosteroids in patients who are not also taking antibiotics.
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Carbohydrate composition of honey from different floral sources and their influence on growth of selected intestinal bacteria: An in vitro comparison
Article
Five human intestinal Bifidobacterium spp. (B. longum, B. adolescentis, B. breve, B. bifidum, and B. infantis) and intestinal microorganism (Bacteriodes thetaiotaomicron, Clostridium perfringens, Eubacterium aerofaciens, and Enterococcus faecalis) were cultured in De Man Rogosa Sharpe (MRS) medium or thioglycollate medium supplemented (5% w/v) with different unifloral honeys (sourwood, alfalfa, or sage). Inoculated samples were incubated anaerobically at 37 °C for 48 h. Samples were collected at 12 h intervals and examined for specific growth rate. Levels of fermentation end products (lactic and acetic acids) produced by Bifidobacterium spp. were measured by high-pressure liquid chromatography. Growth of intestinal microorganisms co-cultured with Bifidobacterium spp. in the presence of different unifloral honeys were also examined. All three honeys enhanced (p < 0.05) growth and activity of the five intestinal Bifidobacterium spp. Their effect on other organisms of the intestinal microflora was selective. Growth of C. perfringens and E. aerofaciens was inhibited (p < 0.05) in the presence of honey and further inhibited when co-cultured with Bifidobacterium spp. Bifidobacterium spp. was not affected.
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Honey - A remedy rediscovered and its therapeutic utility
Article
  • Nov 2004
Honey is a common household product with many medicinal uses described in traditional medicine. Modern system of medicine is also finding the honey efficacious in various medical and surgical conditions. Antimicrobial, antioxidant and wound healing properties of honey are being evaluated with successful outcome. Prevention and treatment of various infections due to a wide variety of organisms and promoting surgical wound healing are some of the areas where honey is making its mark.
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The Antibacterial Activity of Honey
Article
  • Apr 2015
Honey has been used as a medicine since ancient times in many cultures and is still used in ‘folk medicine’. The use of honey as a therapeutic substance has been rediscovered by the medical profession in more recent times, and it is gaining acceptance as an antibacterial agent for the treatment of ulcers and bed sores, and other infections resulting from burns and wounds. In many of the cases in the cited reports, honey was used on infections not responding to standard effective in rapidly clearing up infection and promoting healing. Honey has also been found to be effective in treating bacterial gastoentertis in infants. This is the published version of an article published in the journal: Bee World. Used with permission.
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