Deodorising action
The deodorisation of offensive odour from wounds is an expected conse-quence of honey's antibacterial action. The malodour is due to ammonia, amines and sulphur compounds, which are produced when infecting bacteria metabolise amino acids from proteins in the serum and necrotic tissue in a wound. The rapidity of honey's deodoris-ing action is probably due to the provi-sion of a rich source of glucose, which would be used by the infecting bacteria in preference to amino acids,23 resulting in the production of lactic acid instead of malodorous compounds.