Got a cut? Put honey and cobwebs on it says Angela
SHE believes antibiotics are Britain’s greatest invention but Angela Rippon has a different method to treat cuts and grazes – honey and cobwebs.
The Rip Off Britain presenter says we should look to nature instead of expensive medicines when treating small wounds.
‘Honey for instance, is a wonderful thing to put on to wounds and will help clear bacteria. And cobwebs people used to use,’ Miss Rippon said. ‘There are all sorts of things in the natural world that have in them some sort of antibacterial product that the human race has not even begun to tap into yet.
‘There must be many areas where we can learn a great deal from the natural world.’
However, the 72-year-old – who had TB as a child – also believed in antibiotics, which she champions in the BBC show Britain’s Greatest Inven- tion. The live programme, which is on BBC2 on Thursday at 8.30pm, will feature a public vote to choose the winner. Celebrities including Len Goodman, Sir Trevor McDonald, Giles Coren and Nick Knowles argue the case for innovations such as the steam engine, the fridge, the mobile phone and concrete.
In preparing her case Miss Rippon spoke to scientists studying how leaf-cutter ants kill bacteria, using different bacteria they carry on their backs. She revealed that a recent accident at home meant she had to have a ‘large chunk of skin’ removed from her leg. It might have led to her having her leg amputated ‘or possibly worse’ if it had happened before antibiotics, she said.
Instead it resulted in only a small scar. She said: ‘Throughout my life... there have been numerous occasions that I have said “Thank you very much indeed” to the doctor who has prescribed me antibiotics. Without antibiotics, hundreds of millions of people would not be alive today.’