(Business 2.0) - Ancient Egyptians treated injuries with honey, and World War II doctors dressed wounds with it. Now honey is back on the medical scene, thanks to a startup called MediHoney.

A subsidiary of Australia's Capilano Honey, a maker of edible honey with $80 million in annual sales, MediHoney makes creams, ointments, and other products that treat everything from surgical wounds to eczema. Honey's chemical makeup is determined by local plant life, so MediHoney and two U.K.-based competitors, Medlock Medical and Advancis Medical, sell different therapeutic varieties. In Australia, MediHoney founder Anthony Moloney discovered three types with high levels of hydrogen peroxide and antibacterial properties. "The view about honey is changing dramatically," Moloney says.

Now targeting Australia and parts of Europe, MediHoney hopes to gain Food and Drug Administration approval in 2006 and get a taste of the U.S. advanced wound-care market, which Business Communications estimates will hit $2.8 billion in 2008. It'll be up to MediHoney to make sure the idea sticks.