Honey.
Sweet, golden, buttery deliciousness that lasts forever in your cupboard. You can use honey to sweeten tea, add it to the cooking pot for a complex sweetness, or best of all, spread it on hot buttered toast.
Honey is made from nectar, regurgitated (many times) by bees and stored in wax. In a culture where eating terrestrial invertebrates is considered disgusting and weird, stuff that has been eaten and puked out repeatedly by insects is still normal to eat. That's how amazing it is. It contains mostly sugar, stomach enzymes, a little water, and pollen. It also contains botulism spores, but never mind.
Honey comes in as many varieties as there are nectar types. Most people here in New Zealand are raised on creamy, pale clover honey, or slightly sharp bush honey. Less common varieties include lavender honey (which does smell slightly lavendery), blackcurrant honey (which tastes a bit like Ribena), pohutukawa honey (my favourite: mild and sweet and slightly salty), and honeydew honey (which is made from honeydew, not nectar, and isn't real honey, and tastes wrong, in my opinion).
And then there's the super special mega honey: manuka.
Manuka honey fetches big bucks. You can get medical grade versions of it. You can get it in capsule form or as an ingredient in other medicines or "super foods". You can also get EXTREME manuka honey, with specified levels of something that makes it "bio-active". The special manuka honey must be even more magical and useful and medicinal than regular manuka honey, which is pretty magical to begin with.
Pardon the sarcasm smothering the above paragraph. There is indeed evidence that manuka honey has strong antibacterial properties. It helps to heal wounds (such as leg ulcers), and kills bacteria that infect wounds and cause stomach ulcers. It improves clinical signs of gingivitis and periodontal disease (when chewed as a leathery preparation, and compared to sugar-free gum). Manuka honey is so good at killing some bacteria that they apparently cannot develop resistance to it.
The evidence behind manuka honey's powers of healing and germ bashing is so convincing that medical professionals use it regularly as a wound dressing. Extensive research has uncovered an increasing body of evidence to support manuka honey's medicinal value.
But is it worth the extra price tag?
While manuka honey has been hogging the spotlight, some research groups have included other types of honey in their research. Surprisingly enough, even cheap, normal honey is antibacterial. There is no reason to pay over ten times more for special honey; it is not ten times more medically useful.
The bulk of honey's antimicrobial activity is down to hydrogen peroxide, which is present in all honey. Hydrogen peroxide in honey is at low concentrations, which does not cause as much tissue damage as hydrogen peroxide preparations traditionally used to treat wounds. Manuka honey shows antimicrobial activity from other compounds (such as dihydroxyacetone), and kills bacteria in smaller concentrations than other honeys (though Malaysian tualang honey has similar potency).
Applied direct to wounds, or slightly diluted as a gargle or throat soother, there is no noticeable difference between different types of honey. In general, antimicrobial action varies depending on the source of the nectar used to make it, but the variation isn't really noticeable unless you dilute the honey (although this study shows total annihilation of all bacteria tested at 30% concentration). For normal household use, there is no reason to splash out for the extra antibacterial compounds in manuka honey.
No type of honey is magical or a cure-all; its efficacy is mostly down to hydrogen peroxide. Badly-infected wounds need to be seen by a real doctor and they may need oral antibiotic treatment. Honey can be used as a mild topical antiseptic, though if left uncovered its stickiness may attract dirt and grit. It is also delicious, so if used on children or animals it may cause them to lick the area, which could aggravate the wound. If you use honey as a wound dressing, it's best to cover it up with a bandage or plaster.
Honey is useful as a household remedy, particularly for wound treatment and coughs. Manuka honey may be more effective at killing bacteria at lower concentrations than cheaper honey, but it is not worth its astronomical price tag.
Sweet, golden, buttery deliciousness that lasts forever in your cupboard. You can use honey to sweeten tea, add it to the cooking pot for a complex sweetness, or best of all, spread it on hot buttered toast.
Honey is made from nectar, regurgitated (many times) by bees and stored in wax. In a culture where eating terrestrial invertebrates is considered disgusting and weird, stuff that has been eaten and puked out repeatedly by insects is still normal to eat. That's how amazing it is. It contains mostly sugar, stomach enzymes, a little water, and pollen. It also contains botulism spores, but never mind.
Honey comes in as many varieties as there are nectar types. Most people here in New Zealand are raised on creamy, pale clover honey, or slightly sharp bush honey. Less common varieties include lavender honey (which does smell slightly lavendery), blackcurrant honey (which tastes a bit like Ribena), pohutukawa honey (my favourite: mild and sweet and slightly salty), and honeydew honey (which is made from honeydew, not nectar, and isn't real honey, and tastes wrong, in my opinion).
And then there's the super special mega honey: manuka.
 |
| The manuka bush or New Zealand tea tree, Leptospermum scoparium. Photo by pluckytree |
Manuka honey fetches big bucks. You can get medical grade versions of it. You can get it in capsule form or as an ingredient in other medicines or "super foods". You can also get EXTREME manuka honey, with specified levels of something that makes it "bio-active". The special manuka honey must be even more magical and useful and medicinal than regular manuka honey, which is pretty magical to begin with.
Pardon the sarcasm smothering the above paragraph. There is indeed evidence that manuka honey has strong antibacterial properties. It helps to heal wounds (such as leg ulcers), and kills bacteria that infect wounds and cause stomach ulcers. It improves clinical signs of gingivitis and periodontal disease (when chewed as a leathery preparation, and compared to sugar-free gum). Manuka honey is so good at killing some bacteria that they apparently cannot develop resistance to it.
The evidence behind manuka honey's powers of healing and germ bashing is so convincing that medical professionals use it regularly as a wound dressing. Extensive research has uncovered an increasing body of evidence to support manuka honey's medicinal value.
But is it worth the extra price tag?
While manuka honey has been hogging the spotlight, some research groups have included other types of honey in their research. Surprisingly enough, even cheap, normal honey is antibacterial. There is no reason to pay over ten times more for special honey; it is not ten times more medically useful.
The bulk of honey's antimicrobial activity is down to hydrogen peroxide, which is present in all honey. Hydrogen peroxide in honey is at low concentrations, which does not cause as much tissue damage as hydrogen peroxide preparations traditionally used to treat wounds. Manuka honey shows antimicrobial activity from other compounds (such as dihydroxyacetone), and kills bacteria in smaller concentrations than other honeys (though Malaysian tualang honey has similar potency).
Applied direct to wounds, or slightly diluted as a gargle or throat soother, there is no noticeable difference between different types of honey. In general, antimicrobial action varies depending on the source of the nectar used to make it, but the variation isn't really noticeable unless you dilute the honey (although this study shows total annihilation of all bacteria tested at 30% concentration). For normal household use, there is no reason to splash out for the extra antibacterial compounds in manuka honey.
 |
| Honey works well on animal wounds, and is often used by vets. Covering the wound is important to stop the honey from picking up dirt and grit, or tempting the animal to lick its wound. |
No type of honey is magical or a cure-all; its efficacy is mostly down to hydrogen peroxide. Badly-infected wounds need to be seen by a real doctor and they may need oral antibiotic treatment. Honey can be used as a mild topical antiseptic, though if left uncovered its stickiness may attract dirt and grit. It is also delicious, so if used on children or animals it may cause them to lick the area, which could aggravate the wound. If you use honey as a wound dressing, it's best to cover it up with a bandage or plaster.
Honey is useful as a household remedy, particularly for wound treatment and coughs. Manuka honey may be more effective at killing bacteria at lower concentrations than cheaper honey, but it is not worth its astronomical price tag.
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