Manuka honey kills drug-resistant bacteria

The Tea Tree bush, which is indigenous to New Zealand, is known for its oil. It has soothing, healing properties and is available as an aromatherapy oil and is included in soaps, shampoos, scalp treatments and topical ointments.

Bees like the Tea Tree bush, too. In fact, honey made from the Tea Tree's flower is an extremely potent anti-bacterial agent. Ordinary honey is useful for killing bacteria, but manuka honey - as the honey is called when made from the blossoms of the Tea Tree bush - is even more powerful.

All honey is not created equal!
If you've been using honey from your local supermarket, you may not be getting any of the bacteria-killing properties of honey. Much of the honey on the grocers' shelves is heat-treated (pasteurized). Raw honey contains all the bacteria-fighting properties, but heat-treating honey reduces these properties. One of the reasons heat-treating is popular is that it makes the honey more liquid and easier to pour. Not a very good reason to remove the healthful benefits of honey! Most health-food stores sell raw honey, which contains the anti-microbial constituents to fight diseases and microbes.

Why manuka is the "king of honey"
Because the Tea Tree bush is naturally rich in anti-microbial constituents, the honey manufactured from its blossoms have the same properties.

A honey survey conducted by the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Waikato in New Zealand tested 345 unpasteurized honey samples taken from 26 different floral sources, including manuka honey. They found that manuka had extremely high anti-bacterial properties and had anti-bacterial agents not found in other honey.

Most honey inhibits bacterial growth by generating hydrogen peroxide (your white blood cells fight disease by producing hydrogen peroxide). However, when scientists removed this element from their manuka sample, it was still a potent antibacterial agent!

Here is some additional research that supports the benefits of manuka honey or honey in general:

Good for your gut: Egyptian researchers discovered that honey increases beneficial gut flora (bifido bacteria and lactobacilli) and also reduced the effect of mycotoxins, such as aflatoxin, which is known to cause liver cancer.

Kills E. coli, Staph and Strep growth: Researchers in the United Arab Emirates found that adding honey to cultures of highly contagious bacteria prevented further growth of the cultures!

Good for your teeth and gums: A study at the Discipline of Periodontology at the School of Dentistry in Dunedin, New Zealand, found that 30 volunteers using a special chewable manuka "honey leather" had reduced plaque (reduced from 99% to 65%) and reduced bleeding of the gums (reduced from 48% to 17%) over a 21-day period.

Manuka stops flesh-eating bacteria: British doctors at the Wound Healing Research Unit at the University of Wales College of Medicine found that topically applying manuka honey to wounds infected with MRSA promotes healing and kills the bacteria. MRSA stands for methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, which can cause flesh-eating bacteria.

If you can't easily find manuka honey locally (it isn't very common in the U.S.), click on the link below to buy some from Amazon.



Find more manuka products at Manuka Honey USA.

Additional sources:
J Pharm Pharmacol. 1991 Dec;43(12):817-22
Int J Food Microbiol. 2004 Dec 1;97(1):1-8
BMC Complement Altern Med. 2006 Mar 14;6:6
Med Sci Monit. 2005 Dec;11(12):BR433-8
J Int Acad Periodontol. 2004 Apr;6(2):63-7
J Dermatolog Treat. 2001 Mar;12(1):33-6

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The information in this blog is not intended
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Statements made on this blog
have not been evaluated by the FDA.
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"Let food be thy medicine and
medicine be thy food" - Hippocrates