Health professionals and victims of MRSA, the hospital "superbug", are buying up Irish honey to help cure the disease or protect them from its effects.
This emerged yesterday at the world bee congress, Apimondia Ireland, which opened in the Royal Dublin Society and which is being attended by some 4,000 delegates from almost 100 countries.
Philip McCabe, president of the event, said that Irish beekeepers have reported a surge in demand for honey to treat MRSA.
"They are telling me that they are being asked for honey from healthcare workers and from patients who have caught the disease.
Honey can be used to heal wounds and we have papers being delivered on that subject here today by the scientists," Mr McCabe added.
Mr McCabe, who is a former president of the Federation of Irish Beekeepers' Associations, said he had received a number of requests from people saying they wanted it to cure MRSA.
"Honey is a tried and tested cure for wounds and burns because it is such a pure product and has not to be digested.
"If you take honey into your mouth and hold it there, it will dissolve and go straight into the bloodstream. It does not have to go through the digestive system."
One of the scientific papers presented to the conference yesterday was by Ben V Dalby, who is from the Epping Forest Beekeepers' Association and a board member of the American Apitheraphy Society.
The lecture centred on the use of honey on open leg wounds. This involved the treatment of two wounds on the left leg following a road traffic accident.
A few weeks after the accident, the wounds became infected and weeping, deepening into the soft tissue.
"It was decided at this point to use honey as a wound dressing to cleanse the infection and promote rebuilding of the subcutaneous tissue," Mr Dalby told one of the sessions.
"Honey was placed in the wound and covered with an adhesive, mepore (non-stick) gauze dressing. The dressings were changed daily, with daily reapplications of honey."
He added that the infection was drawn out and within two weeks it had abated. Daily dressings then continued until a healing plateau was reached, approximately two months after the original injury.
Mr Dalby said the upper wound had healed and the one on the lower shin had not. However it did heal a fortnight after bee stings were applied at the centre of the remaining wound in order to stimulate blood supply.