This book was derived from papers given at the meeting organised by the International Bee Research Association entitled: "Honey and healing: from the hive to the hospital" which was held at the University of Cardiff on 7 October 2000. The programme for the meeting stated: "Man has known the curative properties of honey from the earliest times.
We may have forgotten, in latter years, just what medicinal benefits the golden harvest of the hive can bring. Perhaps with bacteria ever more resistant to antibiotics and viruses that seemingly defeat the medical world it is time to look once again to one of nature's own medicines that has a scientifically proven track record."
The book was originally published in 2001, but has been out of print for a number of years. Sadly, Peter Molan, who contributed two chapters, died in 2015. In his obituary published in Bee World, his colleague Prof. Rose Cooper wrote: "I met Peter Molan by chance late in 1996 when I was collecting wound swabs from outpatients attending the Wound Healing Research Unit's clinic at the University Hospital of Wales. He was visiting his mother in Cardiff (where he was born and brought up) and had come to the hospital to promote the use of manuka honey in treating wounds. We chatted for about an hour and he offered to send me some samples of honey when he returned to New Zealand. I did my first experiments on the antibacterial activity of honey in 1997, and it marked the start of a wonderful collaboration that changed the course of my professional life."
It is thus fitting that we republish this popular book.