Putting bee honey on a cut kills bacteria. Honey contains a high concentration of sugar. Use your knowledge of water potential to suggest how putting honey on a cut kills bacteria.

Sugar is a solute, so honey contains a high concentration of solutes. This increases the solute potential, and decreases the water potential of honey, which is therefore lower than the water potential in bacterial cells.
Water flows down the water potential gradient from bacterial cells to honey. This dehydrates bacterial cells and there is reduced solvent available for metabolic reactions to occur in, which slows it down/stops them completely causing bacterial cell death.

NK
Answered by Nighat K. Biology tutor

3164 Views

See similar Biology A Level tutors

Related Biology A Level answers

All answers ▸

A myelinated axon conducts impulses faster than a non-myelinated axon.


How do expiration and inspiration occur by the action of the lungs?


How is gas exchange in a human facilitated?


How does a deletion of a base in the DNA base sequence lead to a mutated protein?


We're here to help

contact us iconContact ustelephone icon+44 (0) 203 773 6020
Facebook logoInstagram logoLinkedIn logo

MyTutor is part of the IXL family of brands:

© 2025 by IXL Learning