Manuka Honey

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But what makes manuka honey so special from other honey?

UMF rated Active Manuka Honey is produced by honey bees from the flowers of the manuka bush (leptospermum scoparium).

Manuka honey comes from New Zealand where beekeepers set up their hives in wild uncultivted areas in which Manuka bushes grow. The bees gather nectar from the flowers of the Manuka bush, which is indigenous only to New Zealand. The honey making process is enriched by the pollution free environment of New Zealand, and certain harvests of Manuka Honey have attracted the gaze of the medicial and scientific community. Some of the Manuka Honey produced has been found to have some very special properties indeed.

It is not as yet fully understood why only some Manuka honey has an antimicrobial property not shared by other honeys. This property is called the Unique Manuka Factor (UMF®) antibacterial property.

The discovery of a unique antibacterial property has led Active Manuka Honey to be considered for both external and internal digestive uses. Previously, this valuable natural resource has been disregarded by conventional medical wisdom to be no more important than any other ‘traditional’ or homeopathic remedy.

New Zealand’s active manuka honey is used as a natural product both internally and topically on the skin. Apitherapy, the name given to treatment with natural honey, has been used by many different cultures throughout history.

Much of the credit for the advancement in our understanding of how manuka honey works must be given to Dr. Peter Molan of the Honey Research Unit at the University of Waikato in Hamilton, New Zealand.

Dr Molan has been involved in studying and cataloguing the effects of honey on the healing process leading to a fuller appreciation of the factors at play in the treatment of a persistent bacterial skin infection.

All honey has some level of the antibacterial chemical hydrogen peroxide, which is produced by enzymes in the honey. These enzymes are easily destroyed by exposure to heat and light and also by contact with body fluids. It is now understood that some rare honeys have an antibacterial action that is separate to the peroxide effect, resulting in a much more persistent and stable antibacterial action.

Such valuable honeys are resistant to losing their antibacterial activity when used in wound treatment and even have strong activity when heavily diluted by body fluids in a wound dressing. Furthermore, such honeys are now known to have a synergistic antibacterial effect with the hydrogen peroxide activity, producing a very powerful weapon against bacterial conditions.

Tested batches of Manuka Honey are given a UMF® rating, depending on their tested antibacterial activity. A UMF® rating of 10 is the minimum activity to gain the UMF rating and thus be considered useful in serious applications. Honey achieving this rating is commonly referred to as Active Manuka Honey.

What is known as ‘Active’ Manuka Honey has enjoyed growing acceptance by the academic and medical world in recent years, and reporting of the honey’s unique properties has proliferated in the world’s press and media.

UMF is the gold standard for manuka honey – check out our range of UMF Standard Manuka Honey.

Enjoy your honey :)