Role of honey in advanced wound care

Abstract

Honey is a natural product rich in several phenolic compounds, enzymes, and sugars with antioxidant, anticarcinogenic, anti-inflammatory, and antimicrobial potential. Indeed, the development of honey-based adhesives for wound care and other biomedical applications are topics being widely investigated over the years. Some of the advantages of the use of honey for wound-healing solutions are the acceleration of dermal repair and epithelialization, angiogenesis promotion, immune response promotion and the reduction in healing-related infections with pathogenic microorganisms. This paper reviews the main role of honey on the development of wound-healing-based applications, the main compounds responsible for the healing capacity, how the honey origin can influence the healing properties, also highlighting promising results in in vitro and in vivo trials. The challenges in the use of honey for wound healing are also covered and discussed. The delivery methodology (direct application, incorporated in fibrous membranes and hydrogels) is also presented and discussed.