Topical Application of Natural Urmia Honey on Experimental Burn Wounds in the Dog: Clinical and Microbiological Studies

Objective- Numerous reports documented the efficacy of honey in wounds healing, and several studies indicated that honey appears to be  better than some modern methods of treatment. Medical and therapeutic properties of honey have been showed to be related to physicochemical and nature of component of it. The  exact composition of natural honey depends on the region, mainly the botanicals; from where, they are derived. This study was designed to evaluate the effects of natural Urmia honey on burn wound healing.   Design- Prospective descriptive trial. Animals- Ten adult mongrel dogs, 4 to 5 years old, with mean weight of 20 ± 4.25 Kg.   Procedures- Burn wounds were created in dorso-lateral region of each dog, according to Hoekstra model. In treatment group (n=5), wounds were covered with a thin layer (10 ml) of natural honey. In control group (n=5); wounds were only washed with the same amount of normal saline. Wound healing was assessed clinically and microbiologically on 1, 7, 14 and 21 days of the experiment.   Results- Wounds treated with honey had more improved healing appearance in comparison with the control wounds. Results showed  that wounds of honey group healed faster than the other group (P<0.05). Also total bacterial count were lower in former group than the later one (P<0.05).   Conclusions and Clinical Relevance: According to the results of this study, topical application of natural honey has beneficial effect  on experimental burn wound from clinical and microbiological points of view. Honey can be considered as a low cost, easily available and potent topical agent in treatment of burn wounds.