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.

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Answered by Nighat K. Biology tutor

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