A pioneering lecturer from Birmingham is to carry out research into the healing power of sugar after winning a scientific foundation grant.
Moses Murandu, who learned the technique of using sugar on cuts and wounds from his father while growing up in Zimbabwe, has been awarded £25,000 to carry out the study.
The 43-year-old senior lecturer at the University of Wolverhampton, who lives in Edgbaston, said his father used granulated sugar to heal wounds and reduce pain when he was a child in Zimbabwe. But when he moved to the UK, he realised that sugar was not used for this purpose here.
Moses carried out his own research into the effect of sugar on patients’ wounds on the vascular ward at Selly Oak Hospital in Birmingham, funding the study himself for six months. But he has now been awarded the Fondation Le Lous Scientific Research Innovation Award, and £25,000, to enable him to continue his innovative work.
The senior lecturer in adult nursing, who is currently studying for a doctorate in Birmingham, was supported in his studies by Malcolm Simms, consultant vascular surgeon at Selly Oak Hospital, who had worked in Uganda and witnessed the use of sugar there.
Moses said sugar can be used on wounds such as bed sores, leg ulcers and even amputations. It works by drawing away the water that bacteria needs to grow, so preventing the bacteria from multiplying.
Moses added. “The patients we have tested it on in the pilot study have said that they never knew such a simple method could make such a difference to their quality of life.”
