Wound Healing Potentials of Honey-Mucin Combinations

In this work, the various topical formulations of mucin, honey and their admixtures (mucinated-honey) (MH) were investigated in wound treatment. Their wound healing effects, tissue re-epithelialization and efficacy in wounds were compared to those of silver sulphadiazine cream (SSD) which was employed as standard. Ointments were used and various quantities of mucin, honey were incorporated to give the required formulations. Histological examination coupled with visual scoring allowed the assessment of changes to the wounded area. MH showed enhanced wound healing when compared with mucin alone, honey alone or SSD. The combination resulted in up to 89% wound healing on day 15 compared to 74 % for honey and 80 for mucin alone. The wounds showed early resolution of oedema, fever, minimal scar, early establishment of angiogenesis, fibroblast cells and high density keratinocytes than mucin, honey or SSD formulations. Various ratios of mucin and honey showed enhanced activity against the three bacteria isolates tested. MH also decreased the bioload of wound better than mucin alone and honey alone.