Honey As An Ethnoremedy

Honey in Traditional and Modern Medicine

The use of honey as a medicine is referred to in the most ancient written records, it being prescribed by the physicians of many ancient races of people for a wide variety of ailments (Ransome 1937). It has continued to be used in folk medicine ever since. There are abundant references to honey as medicine in ancient scrolls, tablets, and books. It was prescribed for a variety of illnesses. Excavated medical tablets from Mesopotamia indicate that honey was a common ingredient in many prescriptions (Hajar 2002).
In ancient Egyptian medicine, honey was the most frequent ingredient in all the drug recipes for both internal and external use listed in the Ebers and Edwin Smith Papyri. According to the Ebers papyrus (1550 BC), it is included in 147 prescriptions in external applications. Also, according to the Smith papyrus (1700 BC), it was used in wound healing: “Thou shouldst bind [the wound] with fresh meat the first day [and] treat afterwards with grease, honey [and] lint every day until he recovers.” Honey was used for treatment of stomach pain and urinary retention and as ointment for dry skin. It was used as ointment for wounds and burns, skin irritation, and eye diseases. The Ebers Papyrus contains a description on how to make ointment from honey and how to apply it, with a note: “Notice that this is a very good therapy.” The author of the Smith Papyrus directed that honey be applied topically, with few if any other possibly active ingredients, to wounds.
In old Egypt, honey was the only active ingredient in an ointment described in the Ebers Papyrus for application to the surgical wound of circumcision. Ebers also specifies that an ointment for the ear be made of one-third honey and two-thirds oil. The concentration of honey in seven oral remedies in the Chester Beatty VI Papyrus ranges from 10% to 50%, whereas its proportion in other remedies ranges from 20% to 84%. Honey could very well have provided some kind of protection from the kinds of bacteria most likely to infect wounds, at least enough protection to permit wounds to begin healing on their own.
The ancient Egyptians were not the only people who used honey as medicine. The Chinese, Indians, ancient Greeks, Romans, and Arabs used honey in combination with other herbs and on its own to treat wounds and various other diseases.
In old Greece, the honeybee, a sacred symbol of Artemis, was an important design on Ephesian coins for almost six centuries. Aristotle (384–322 BC) described for the first time the production of honey. Aristotle believed that eating honey prolonged life. Hippocrates (460–377 BC) speaks about the healing virtues of honey: “cleans sores and ulcers, softens hard ulcers of the lips, heals cabuncles and running sores.” Hippocrates is quoted as saying, “I eat honey and use it in the treatment of many diseases because honey offers good food and good health.” Dioscorides (AD 40–90), a Greek physician who traveled as a surgeon with the armies of the Roman emperor Nero, compiled De Materia Medica around AD 77, which was the foremost classic source of modern botanical terminology and the leading pharmacologic text until the 15th century. In addition to excellent descriptions of nearly 600 plants and 1000 simple drugs, Dioscorides described the medicinal and dietetic value of animal derivatives such as milk and honey. Dioscorides stated that honey could be used as a treatment for stomach disease, for a wound that has pus, for hemorrhoids, and to stop coughing. “Honey opens the blood vessels and attracts moisture. If cooked and
applied to fresh wounds, it seals them. It is good for deep dirty wounds. Honey mixed with salt could be dropped inside a painful ear. It will reduce the pain and swelling of the ear. It will kill lice if infested children skin is painted with it. It may also improve vision. Gargle with honey to reduce tonsil swelling. For coughing, drink warm honey and mix with rose oil.” Galen recommended warming up the honey or cooking it, then using it to treat hemorrhoids and deep wounds.
In ancient Rome, honey was mentioned many times by the writers Vergil, Varro, and Plinius. Especially Virgil’s Georgics is a classic where he describes in detail how honey is made. During the time of Julius Caesar, honey was used as a substitute for gold to pay taxes. In the first century AD, Apicus, a wealthy Roman gourmet, wrote a series of books in which more than half the recipes included honey (Bogdanov 2009). A Roman Catholic saint (St. Ambrose) stated, “The fruit of the bees is desired of all and is equally sweet to kings and beggars and is not only pleasing but profitable and healthful, it sweetens their mouths, cures their wounds, and conveys remedies to inward ulcers.” The Roman, Pliny the Elder, said that mixing fish oil with honey was an excellent treatment for ulcers.
In medieval high cultures of the Arabs, the Byzantines, and medieval Europe, honey was important too, and in these cultures, most sweet meals contained honey.
The Compendium of Medicine by Gilbertus Anglicus is one of the largest sources of pharmaceutical and medical information from medieval Europe. Translated in the early 15th century from Latin to Middle English, the text consists of medicinal recipes with guides to diagnosis, medicinal preparation, and prognosis. The text names more than 400 ingredients. Treatments are presented roughly from “head to tail,” so to speak, beginning with headache and ending with hemorrhoids. Honey was a frequent ingredient to many of the remedies and it was combined with other medicinal herbs commonly used at that time. Excerpts appear below:
Headache … let him use oxymel … made of honey and vinegar; two parts of vinegar and the third part of honey, mixed together and simmered. Pimples … anoint it with clean honey, or with the powder of burnt beans and honey, or with the powder of purslane and honey mixed together. Pennyroyal … taken with honey, cleanse the lungs and clear the chest of all gross and thick humors. (Fay Marie Getz 1991)
Germans used honey and cod liver oil for ulcerations, burns, fistulas, and boils in addition to a honey salve, which was mixed with egg yolk and flour for boils and sores (Newman 1983).
AlBasri (Ali Bin Hamzah AlBasri), a 10th century Arab philosopher, mentioned uncooked honey for swollen intestine, whereas cooked honey was good for inducing vomiting when a poisonous drug was ingested. For that purpose, he recommended mixing one pound of sesame oil with one-third pound of cooked honey. Al Razi (Rhazes, AD 864–932), a renowned Muslim physician famous for writing a treatise distinguishing measles from smallpox, claimed that honey ointment made of flour and honey vinegar was good for skin disease and sports nerve injuries and recommended the use of honey water for bladder wounds. His book, Al Hawi (Encyclopedia of Medicine), a comprehensive medical textbook of medicine, which was translated from Arabic to Latin in the 13th century and became a standard textbook of medicine up to the 1700s stated: “Honey is the best treatment for the gums. To keep the teeth healthy mix honey with vinegar and use as mouth wash daily. If you rub the teeth with such a preparation it will whiten the teeth. Honey does not spoil and could also be used to preserve cadavers.” Likewise, Ibn Sina (Avicenna), another famous Muslim physician whose great medical treatise, the Canon, was the standard textbook on medicine in the Arab world and Europe until the 17th century, wrote: “Honey is good for prolonging life, preserve activity in old age. If you want to keep your youth, take honey. If you are above the age of 45, eat honey regularly, especially mixed with chestnut powder. Honey and flour could be used as dressing for wounds. For lung disease, early stage of tuberculosis, use a combination of honey and shredded rose petals. Honey can be used for insomnia on occasions.”
The Hindu Scripture, Veda, which was composed about 1500 BC and written down about 600 BC, speak of “this herb, born of honey, dripping honey, sweet honey, honied, is the remedy for injuries. Lotus honey is used for eye diseases. It is used as topical eye ointment in measles to prevent corneal scarring” (Imperato and Traore 1969), “moreover it crushes insects.” In the section on Hymn to All Magic and Medicinal Plants, honey is used as a universal remedy: “The plants … which removes disease, are full of blossoms, and rich in honey … do I call to exempt him from injury” (Bogdanov 2009).
In ancient China, honey has been mentioned in the book of songs Shi Jing, written in the 6th century BC. According to Chinese medicine, honey acts according to the principles of the Earth element, acting mainly on the stomach and on the spleen. It has Yang character, acting on the Triple Heater Meridian (Shaoyang) (Bogdanov 2009).
In Central and South America, honey from stingless bees was used for ages, long before Columbus. Honey of the native stingless bees was used and regarded as a gift of the gods; it was also a sign of fertility and was given as an offering to the gods (Bogdanov 2009).
Africa has also a long tradition of a bee use for honey, both in the high cultures of Mediterranean Africa and in the more primitive cultures in regions to the south. Honey is used to treat infected leg ulcers in Ghana (Ankra-Badu 1992) and earaches in Nigeria (Obi et al. 1994). Other uses include treatment of gastric ulcers and constipation (Molan 1999).

Source: "Honey in Traditional and Modern Medicine (Traditional Herbal Medicines for Modern Times)" 1st Edition by Laïd Boukraâ (Editor)