Manuka honey is the stuff you can buy that has medicinal qualities.
Manuka honey is said to have additional healing qualities for reasons unknown.
The honey may be acting on 2 fronts. One could just be that the high sugar content acts to dehydrate the bacteria via osmotic shock. Granulated sugar can be used in this manner in bedsores. I believe that deep wounds get a Betadine/sugar mixture. The packing mixture has to be washed out and reapplied every few hours. And the wound still needs to be cleaned prior to the application, the bleeding stopped and the wound subsequently kept clean.
This defensin-1 could be acting like the iodine in the granulated sugar therapy, as something that actually kills the microbes, while the high sucrose content draws fluid from them.
It isn’t a secret nor magic. Done sloppily, it could aggravate the problem. I wonder how this sort of treatment compares to a powdered neosporin-type application, such as we use on the dog’s hot spots, along with an Epsom salt soak?