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The Science of Manuka Honey

Wellness and Wilderness

Honey is a delicious treat and a time-proven natural remedy. All honeys appear to demonstrate active healing qualities, but one honey has highly potent anti-bacterial properties, borne out by some of the most exciting scientific discoveries of recent times. This honey is called Manuka. Manuka – a wild shrub whose Latin name is leptospermum scoparium – is found in the pristine green hills of New Zealand’s North and South Islands. As well as donating its special medicinal properties, it is leptospermum scoparium that gives Manuka honey its familiar herbal tangy taste.

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University Proven

Professor Peter Molan Phd, MBE. is Professor of Biochemistry and Director of the Honey Research Unit at New Zealand’s University of Waikato(1). For the last 2 decades, Professor Molan and his team have studied Manuka honey, and have analysed what it is that makes Manuka so powerful at dealing with human infections. Honey’s antibacterial properties derive mostly from a substance called Hydrogen Peroxide, which is produced by an enzyme called Glucose Oxidase. Whilst all honeys contain some level of Glucose Oxidase, the amounts present depend on the climate, geography, and nectar sources found by the honeybees. As well as strongly defined levels of Glucose Oxidase, The Honey Research Unit has also discovered that Manuka honey has another, special non-Peroxide component, found uniquely in honey from leptospermum scoparium that makes Manuka so active and so effective a weapon in the fight against infections.

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How Strong is Strong?

The University of Waikato team first needed to design a system to measure then non-Peroxide levels in Manuka honey, which is calculated in terms of the honey’s activity. These Activity levels are calculated by measuring the honey sample against a phenol solution. Depending on where you are in the world, the strength of a Manuka honey will be described as its UMF (Unique Manuka Factor) or, more simply, its Activity level. The standard laboratory practice for measuring antiseptic activity is to compare the control with phenol. Thus, 10+ Activity has 10 times the antibacterial, antiseptic and antimicrobial power of a 1% phenol solution. In most cases, 15+ Activity Manuka honey is suggested when acute infections are suspected, whilst 5+ and 10+ Manukas are usually employed for general health maintenance.

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Laboratory Tested

Every single shipment of Rowse Manuka honey is scrupulously tested, and its Activity level determined, in an accredited New Zealand laboratory working to the established University of Waikato testing method.

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Digestive Health

Countless thousands of individuals all over the world have reported that Manuka honey has been effective in dealing with a range of digestive disorders. Research at the University of Waikato has demonstrated how efficiently Manuka honey neutralises heliobacter pylori. This bacterium, which infects various areas of the stomach lining, is proven to be the root cause of gastritis, peptic ulceration and gastric cancer.(2) Heliobacter pylori colonisation is caused by prescription antibiotic over-use, smoking, excessive caffeine intake, and from ingesting contaminated food and drink. It is estimated that 50% of the Uk UK population are infected with heliobacter pylori. (3) How does Manuka neutralise this insidious bacterium? Most honeys cannot survive dilution by the body’s gastric juices, but Manuka honey, with its unique non-Peroxide activity, not only survives dilution, but becomes more potent in the stomach and duodenum, thus making it an effective weapon against unwelcome bacteria in the digestive tract (4)

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E coli and staphylococcus Aureus

Tests at the University if Waikato and elsewhere have proven that Glucose Oxidase is neutralised by the protein-digestive enzymes found in the fluids of the human body’s digestive tract. Manuka honey, however, diffuses deeper into the body’s tissues, so also making it remarkably effective against certain virulent forms of bacteria such as E coli and staphylococcus Aureus. (1)

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Manuka Honey’s Fight Against MRSA

Scientists are rediscovering what Maori’s have known since time immemorial – that Manuka honey is a potent, effective healer of wounds and fighter of infections. In the UK, the number of deaths in which the hospital-acquired infection known as Methicilyn Resistant Staphyloccocus Aureus (MRSA) has contributed is increasing. In 1993, 51 such cases were reported; in 2005, there were 1,629 MRSA related deaths, with indications of 5,000+ deaths in 2007. (5) Researchers at Liverpool’s Aintree Hospital, and at the Centre for Biomedical Sciences, School of Health Sciences, University of Wales, Cardiff Institute (6) are reporting excellent results in treating MRSA infections with Manuka honey. They believe that not only inhibits the growth of bacteria to stop wound infection spreading within the body, but that Manuka also inhibits or prevents the spread of infection to other patients. There are strong early indications that higher concentrations of Manuka honey could destroy MRSA.

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Manuka – Nature’s Clinical Wound Healer

Researchers have credited Manuka honey as having an 85% success rate – compared with 50% with routine treatments – when used to reduce inflammation in post-surgical wounds (7). Manuka, when incorporated in an alginate (gel) dressing, has also proven highly effective in the healing of leg ulcers (8). This is not new news: in his Materia Medica (circa 500AD), the Greek physician Discorides was prescribing honey in the treatment of ‘foul, rotten and hollow ulcers’. Now that this folk medicine has been scientifically proven, the UK National Health Service has now licensed a dressing system from Advancis called Activon – the first medically-sanctioned, nationally-available Manuka honey treatment. (9)

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Manuka Honey Helps Beat Gum Disease

Despite its delicious sweetness, manuka honey has been found to disrupt three types of mouth bacteria that cause tooth decay (10). It does this by reducing the acid levels produced by these bacteria. This in turn stops the bacteria producing a substance called dextran, which sticks dental plaque to the surface of the teeth. Manuka honey, which retains its anti-microbial properties even when diluted up to 50 times can, therefore, be used as an extremely effective mouthwash (although, like all honeys, it should not be given to infants under 12 months - click here for Honey Q and A's).

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Manuka Honey Soothes Sore Throats

Manuka honey appears to be very potent in fighting the bacteria streptococcus pyogones, the culprit that causes causes sore throats. Traditional medicine has long respected the wisdom of treating sore throats, especially in children, with a spoonful of honey, and now modern science seems to bear this out. Whilst all honeys have proven antiseptic properties, Manuka honey is nearly 50% more effective against streptococcus pyogenes than other honeys (1). Many consumers report that taking a teaspoon of Manuka honey three times a day and keeping it in the mouth for as long as possible before swallowing, can help prevent most throat infections.

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Manuka Honey Soothes Acne, Eczema and Sunburn

There’s a weight of anecdotal evidence to suggest that unsightly spots called Molluscum Contagiosum can disappear by dabbing these with the honey. Both beauty editors and clinicians suggest that, as a treatment, Manuka honey be applied to the skin as a face pack for 15 to 20 minutes, then be washed off with warm water. Equally, researchers at Guy’s Hospital in London (11) found that a combination of bee venom and Manuka are a hundred times more effective as an anti-inflammatory than hydrocortisone, the topical steroid used in the treatment of eczema. A recent study at the University of Wales also found that Manuka Honey appears to be useful in the treatment of cold sores (herpes simplex). Diluted or not, Manuka is also traditionally applied to soothe sun burnt skin.

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Manuka Honey, the Clinician’s Weapon

Having discovered just how effective Manuka honey can be in the treatment of infections, wounds and sores, researchers and clinicians have been trialing Manuka honey with cancer patients. Since July 2006, the team working under Dr Nick Slevin at Christie’s Cancer Hospital in Manchester has treated mouth cancer patients post-operatively with Manuka honey, and reported excellent recovery rates. (12) Elsewhere, a paper published recently in the respected Journal of Luekocyte Biology has shown how manuka honey works, not only as a wound healer, but by stimulating the body’s immune cells. (13)

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