The value of honey in wound management has been appreciated world-wide for millennia in almost all civilisations; the Edwin Smith papyrus (1500 BC) mentioned the treatment of burns with honey and grease, and written reports of its value in wound management date back to mediaeval times. Despite the general recognition of the ‘benefits’ of the use of honey in wound management, medical and veterinary texts published through the 19th and 20th centuries singularly failed to recognise it as an aid to wound management; almost no reference is made in any veterinary surgical texts – honey seemed to have become a forgotten topic. In contrast, in the 21st century the breadth of honey’s properties in wound management (both veterinary and human) and in other medical areas has resulted in several hundred publications and even text books dedicated to it.
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