Without pollinators, such as a honey bee, people would have remained without a significant portion of agricultural products.

But, as it turned out, the potential use of bees for medicine can be even greater.

Swedish scientists called bees a source of alternative antibiotics, analogues that science does not know.

Researchers at Lund University in Sweden have found that a group of lactic acid bacteria that are contained in the honey bee of the bee has a unique ability to suppress pathogenic microorganisms, including methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus - a notorious MRSA. The researchers are going to study the composition of these bacteria and isolate from them new antibiotics. More information on this can be found in the International Wound Journal.

Given the fact that people have been using honey bees to heal wounds for many thousands of years, scientists have not been very surprised by its antimicrobial properties.

Employees of Lund University studied the properties of fresh honey only, which contains live lactic bacteria, in contrast to the store honey, where you can find only dead microorganisms and a completely different environment.

Lactic acid bacteria from fresh honey are effective against MRSA and other pathogens.

Dr. Tobias Olofsson, an expert in medical microbiology, together with his colleagues identified a unique group of 13 lactobacilli that are found only in fresh honey and honey bees of the bees.

Lactic acid bacteria live in symbiosis with bees and, apparently, for thousands of years are involved in honey production. They release a number of antimicrobial substances. These bacteria are present in large quantities in fresh raw honey, regardless of the region of the world where it was harvested.

Scientists have found that lactic acid bacteria from bees are very effective against MRSA, as well as VRE (vancomycin-resistant enterococcus), Pseudomonas aeruginosa and other dangerous pathogens that often cause nosocomial infections in weakened patients.

Fresh honey successfully heals lethargic wounds in horses.

The study of the antimicrobial properties of a new group of bacteria has so far been carried out only in laboratory cultures in vitro - there have been no human trials.

Nevertheless, the team tested honey enriched with lactic acid bacteria on horseback. They took 10 horses with flaccid wounds from their owners, who for a long time unsuccessfully treated animals. The result was terrific: all 10 horses managed to be cured with the help of bacteria enriched with honey.

Scientists believe that lactic acid bacteria in honey produce a wide range of antimicrobial substances that are yet to be isolated and studied.

Dr. Olofsson explains: "An antibiotic is usually one active ingredient effective against a certain spectrum of bacteria. If our lactic acid bacteria are used in a living form, then these 13 organisms produce the correct substances in the amount necessary to suppress pathogenic flora. Apparently, it worked for millions of years, protecting bees and their honey from harmful microbes.

But it is unlikely that you will get the same results from the shop honey, because the old honey does not contain living bacteria, and many unique properties are lost ".

Scientists are going to try out a new old remedy for people suffering from chronic ulcers and flaccid wounds in the future. They believe that this discovery will be very useful for Western medicine, where antibiotic resistance becomes a serious threat, as well as for poor countries where there is simply no access to modern drugs.

medbe. en.