Honey as a Dressing for Wounds, Burns, and Ulcers (Part 9).

Apitherapy has been around since the early Egyptians used bee products for a variety of ailments, but in recent years, complementary medicine has been experimenting more with the potential benefits of honey, beeswax, royal jelly — and even bee venom delivered directly from the insect.

Honey Bee Lore.

Honey bees have been closely associated with human beings for a long time. More than 9000 years ago, in a rock shelter in the mountains of eastern Spain, an early artist recorded the exploits of a brave individual surrounded by bees reaching inside a cavity to steal honey. Robbing honey from the nests of wild bees is still practiced by some Asian cultures. The oldest alcoholic beverage, mead, a drink made from fermented honey and water has been found in an Iron Age tomb in Scotland.

Many in the medical establishment are sceptical of claims of medical benefits from bee products, especially apitoxin (bee venom). However, apitherapy has quite a following in eastern Europe and the Far East, and enthusiasts say it is slowly gaining popularity in Canada. In fact, they've even designated World Apitherapy Day on March 30 — the birthday of Phillip Terc, a European physician who was born in 1844 and was the first scientific researcher to investigate the medical uses of apitoxin.

Honey bees appear in the temple and tomb art of Egypt as far back as 2400 B.C. The honey bee was the symbol of Lower Egypt. In the solar cult of Ra, the tears of Ra were honey bees.

Bee-keeping shows up in Greek mythology. Aristaeus, a keeper of bees who lost his hives to disease, compelled Proteus, a shape-changer who was also the wise god of the sea, to tell him how to avoid such a loss in the future. More diseases have been described for honey bees than any other insects. The earliest written descriptions were made by Aristotle around 325 B.C.

Annie van Alten — who lives north of Hamilton in Carlisle, Ont. — is one of the believers. She and her partner have been beekeepers for 26 years. As an apitherapist, she uses bee venom therapy to treat people suffering from arthritis or multiple sclerosis.

The honey bee, a sacred symbol of Artemis, was an important design on Ephesian coins for almost 6 centuries. (Ephesus was the center of worship of Artemis.)

After his death in 323 B.C., Alexander the Great was embalmed in a coffin filled with honey.

"When you have an inflammation, you use bee venom to get the blood flowing. It releases tension in the joints," she explained.

Over the centuries, bees have been used many times as weapons of war. In the thirteen century, residents of the Aegean island of Astipalaia hurled beehives onto pirates storming the castle gates.

Van Alten administers bee stings to her family members and tried them out on herself when she suffered from severe arthritis…

During W.W. I, Belgians trapped in an apiary used bees against the Germans.

Honey, too, has been used as a weapon.

University of Guelph entomology professor Gard Otis said he has seen people benefit from using bee venom, but warned of the dangers of allergic reactions.

Certain members of the heath family produce grayanotoxins, chemicals that act as breathing inhibitors and hypnotics. Honey from these plants is referred to as toxic or "mad" honey. Three squadrons of Pompey's Roman troops were slain while under the influence of toxic honey provided by local tribesmen.

Honey, on the other hand, got a much sweeter review. Otis said honey can be used quite effectively for wound dressings on burns and cuts.

In small amounts, toxic honey has been used in alcohol, as an additive to increase its punch, and in medicine.

Honey bees are not native to the Americas, Australia or New Zealand.

"It creates a barrier on wounds," he said. "Something in it stimulates wound healing — it moisturizes and once the fluids mix with the wounds, one of the enzymes becomes active and breaks down the sugars and creates hydrogen peroxide."

Settlers had established colonies in Virginia by 1622, but California had to wait until the 1850s. Because of their close connection with the advancing colonists, Native Americans referred to honey bees as the "white man's flies".

Today, honey bees perform a vital role in agribusiness, pollinating many of our food crops.

The curative powers of honey depend on which plants bees have been visiting, which is never a sure thing… [read more]

The honey and wax produced are significant. According to May Berenbaum in her book "Bugs in the System", it takes 130,000 loads of nectar or about 10 million flower visits to produce one kilogram of honey (about 2.2 pounds).