Experimental Evaluation of Repair Process of Burn-Wounds Treated with Natural Honey

Honey produced by honeybees (Apis mellifera) is one of the ancient traditional medicines used for treatment of wounds and various illnesses. This study was an assessment the antimicrobial activity of natural honey on burn wound healing and its properties was compared to silver sulfadiazine. This evaluation was including clinical, microbiological and histopathological examinations. Fifteen adult mongrel dogs, 4 to 5 years old, with mean weight of 21±4.24 Kg were studied. Burn wounds were created in dorsolateral region of each dog, according to Hoekstra model. In honey treated group (n = 5), wounds were cover with a thin layer (5 mL) of natural honey after washing with normal saline once a day and in the SSD treated group (n = 5), instead of honey, 5g of 1% silver sulfadiazine ointment was applied at same frequency and time of day. In control group (n = 5); wounds only were washed with normal saline once a day. Clinical and microbiological examinations of the burn wounds were carried out on 1, 7, 14 and 21days of the experiment. Specimens were taken for histopathological examinations on day 21. Results were shown wounds of honey and silver sulfadiazine groups were healed in significantly shorter period than the control group (p<0.05). Also total bacterial count were smaller in wounds of two experiment groups than the wounds of control group (p<0.05). On histopathology re-epithelization was more pronounced and the collagen fibers were also more orderly arranged in the honey- treated group. According to results of this study, topical application of natural honey has beneficial effect on experimental burn wound and also there are not significant differences between two treatment groups (honey and silver sulfadiazine groups) from clinical, microbiological and histological aspects.