Honey from the Australian honeypot ant (Camponotus inflatus) may have medicinal properties that fight infection. While this has been known among Australia’s indigenous peoples for thousands of years, Western science has now formally studied the organic substance’s antimicrobial properties in a recent study published in PeerJ.
The interest in using honey as an antimicrobial treatment in modern medicine has skyrocketed with recent increases in antimicrobial resistance. Other studies have found that honey from honeybees can inhibit 60 species of bacteria, some fungi and some viruses.
But honey from the ballooning ants has a different mechanism to treat ailments. “This discovery means that honeypot ant honey could contain compounds with substantial antimicrobial power; identifying these could provide us with starting points for developing new and different types of antibiotics,” said Kenya Fernandes, a microbiologist and study author at the University of Sydney, in a statement.
