A pioneering University of Wolverhampton lecturer is researching the healing effect of sugar on cuts and wounds.

Senior Lecturer Moses Murandu grew up in Zimbabwe and his father used granulated sugar to heal wounds and reduce pain when he was a child. But when he moved to the UK, he realised that sugar was not used for this purpose here.

Moses, 43, carried out 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.

Sugar can be used on wounds such as bed sores, leg ulcers and even amputations. It works because bacteria needs water to grow, so applying sugar to a wound draws the water away and starves the bacteria of water. This prevents the bacteria from multiplying and they die. Moses found that a 25% sugar concentration ensures the microorganisms cannot survive.

Mr Murandu, Senior Lecturer in Adult Nursing at the School of Health and Well Being, said: “When I was a child, my father used sugar or salt and I grew up without realising that something that works is not widely used.

“While salt is painful, sugar is not and reduces the pain drastically. 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.”