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

Numerous reports documented the efficacy of honey in wounds healing, andseveral studies indicated that honey appears to be better than some modern methods oftreatment. Medical and therapeutic properties of honey have been showed to be related tophysicochemical and nature of component of it. The exact composition of natural honeydepends on the region, mainly the botanicals; from where, they are derived. This study wasdesigned 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 toHoekstra 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 amountof normal saline. Wound healing was assessed clinically and microbiologically on 1, 7, 14and 21 days of the experiment.Results- Wounds treated with honey had more improved healing appearance incomparison with the control wounds. Results showed that wounds of honey group healedfaster than the other group (P 0.05). Also total bacterial count were lower in former groupthan the later one (P 0.05).Conclusions and Clinical Relevance: According to the results of this study, topicalapplication of natural honey has beneficial effect on experimental burn wound fromclinical and microbiological points of view. Honey can be considered as a low cost, easilyavailable and potent topical agent in treatment of burn wounds.