Antibiotic resistance occurs when microbes develop mechanisms that protect them from antibiotic effects, which is described as the greatest threat to global health today.
More than 1.2 million people died worldwide in 2019 as a result of bacterial infections that were resistant to antibiotics, according to medical journal The Lancet.
The increasing resistance of bacteria to antibiotics threatens to return to the “pre-antibiotic era”, which poses a major threat to global health and security.
As antibiotic-resistant infections continue to spread, and the concern surrounding them grows, scientists are working to discover alternatives to antimicrobial drugs, and honey may be an ideal target to achieve this.
Scientists are studying the natural healing properties of honey because it contains antimicrobial compounds. It has been used for centuries as a natural remedy to combat many types of diseases and treat wounds.
The challenge is to find and isolate these compounds so that they can lead to new treatments to deal with health problems.
Speaking to the BBC, Professor Les Bailey from Cardiff University’s School of Pharmacy said the university’s research into honey is an attempt to go back to traditional remedies “to see if we can learn from our ancestors”.
Scientists in Cardiff are looking to see if honey has a role to play.
According to Cardiff University: “Honey’s healing properties result from a combination of factors, including its high sugar content, low pH, hydrogen peroxide, and bee-derived peptides. Honey also contains antimicrobial phytochemicals which represent a rich source of evidence for developing Medicines for the treatment of microbial infections.
Scientists at Cardiff University are trying to find and isolate antimicrobial compounds by using honey as a ‘drug discovery tool’, by seeing if bees are grazing on a plant that contains the antibiotic. Once they discover the plant, they can then look at its compounds.
Dr Jennifer Hawkins said: ‘Our plan was to hire the bees as private investigators and send them out to interview every flowering plant in the country. During each visit, these investigators would collect forensic material in the form of nectar containing phytochemicals, some of which may be antibacterial, and pills. pollen that bears the DNA fingerprint of the plant.”