ACTIVE MANUKA HONEY

ACTIVE MANUKA HONEY

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. Such uses are now being reconsidered by a modern world in light of new research into the properties and uses of 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.

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 only thanks to academic research, predominantly in the last decade, that we are now able to explain many of the incredible observed effects that certain specially selected and tested honeys can have.

Unique Manuka Factor (UMF)

Unique Manuka Factor (UMF)

The UMF or unique manuka factor is a rating system that measures the non-hydrogen peroxide antibacterial potency of manuka honey. The system has a range from 0 to 30 but typical manuka honey has a rating of 10 or more.
The higher the UMF rating is, the higher the anti-bacterial activities are. The UMF rating of manuka honey is determined by measuring the antibacterial activity of a given honey with the antibacterial activity of antiseptic phenol, also known as carbolic acid, at various concentrations. Hydrogen peroxide must first be eliminated using the enzyme catalase so that only the non-peroxide compound is measured.
The species of bacteria used is Staphylococcus aureus, also known as Golden Staph or Hospital Superbug, a strain of bacteria that poses a huge threat to people. It has a developed antibiotic resistance to penicillins including methicillin, oxacillin, amoxicillin and other antibiotics, and only manuka honey has been known to naturally destroy these bacteria. Thus, Staphylococcus aureus it is commonly used in testing of manuka honey’s antibacterial activity.

 The numbers are proportional to the potency of a certain percentage of phenol. For example, a UMF rating of 10 is the same as having an antibacterial potency of 10% of phenol solution.

The UMF Ratings (measure of antibacterial strength):

• 0-4: Not detectable
• 5-9: Maintenance levels only (similar to table honey and not recommended for special therapeutic use)
• 10-15: Useful levels endorsed by the Honey Research Unit at The University of Waikato[citation needed]
• 16 and over: Superior levels with very high activity.

antibacterial-properties-of-manuka-honey.

Antibacterial properties of Manuka honey

Antibacterial properties of Manuka honey

Honey has been used for treating infected wounds for at least two millennia. In c.50 AD, Dioscorides once described honey as being "good for all rotten and hollow ulcers".[cite this quote] Medical science has established that honey has an inhibitory effect to around 60 species of bacteria including aerobes and anaerobes, gram-positives and gram-negatives.[citation needed]

Manuka honey, like other honeys, has an antibacterial property due to the release of hydrogen peroxide which can kill bacteria. Unique to the Leptospermum species of plants, honeys made from these plants contain other non-peroxide compounds with anti-bacterial properties.
Manuka honey