Innovation No. 3 of 77 in the book
Antimicrobials
Honey used as an early, effective treatment for infected wounds
- When
- c. 1550 BCE
- Dynasty
- 18th Dynasty
- Era
- New Kingdom
Hospitals today pack stubborn, drug-resistant wounds with medical-grade honey. Egyptian healers were doing the same thing around 1550 BCE, in the early New Kingdom.
The Ebers Papyrus prescribes honey in hundreds of remedies; the surgical Edwin Smith scroll makes it the standard dressing for deep wounds and burns.
They had no idea bacteria existed. But honey works — it pulls water out of microbes and kills them — and they had noticed, and written it down, thousands of years before the microscope proved why.
It is the oldest wound-care technology still in use today.
Honey appears in hundreds of remedies in the Ebers Papyrus, dated to about 1550 BCE. The Edwin Smith Papyrus goes further and makes it the standard daily dressing. Its Case 1, a gaping head wound, tells the doctor to bind the wound with fresh meat on day one, then dress it every day after with grease, honey and lint. The Hearst and London medical papyri list it the same way.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is there physical evidence, or only written recipes?
Both. Laboratory analysis of residues inside Egyptian medical jars has found raw honey stored alongside other pharmaceutical ingredients — confirmation that it was kept and used as a drug, not merely written about.
Was honey the only wound dressing they used?
No. Grease and lint were packed on with it, and fresh meat was applied on the first day. The combination held the wound closed, kept it moist and kept microbes out, which is roughly what a modern dressing is asked to do.