new-zealand-honey-recipes

manuka honey wound healing east cape manuka

Manuka Honey for Wound Healing
Honey has been used for thousands of years to assist in the healing of wounds. As mentioned by the ancient Greek physician Pedanius Dioscorides (ca. 40-90), honey was good for "all rotten and hollow ulcers."  Up to WWII its use was fairly common in European and American households. However, with the advent of modern antibiotics, honey lost ground as natural remedy for wound healing. In retrospect, this shift was regrettable because it was partially responsible for the emergence of "superbugs", highly pathogenic organisms that have developed resistance to most antibiotics. The emergence of these pathogens is leading more and more people to rediscover honey for the healing of wounds. Among all honeys, Manuka has been demonstrated to be the most effective due to the presence of active compounds not found in other honeys.

The highly positive feedback we receive continuously on our wound healing product is consistent with the animal data and clinical trials available. The feedback we receive includes both nursing homes and rehabilitation centers, which report excellent results with diabetic ulcers, bedsores and other difficult to treat wounds, and from individual users, who report minor wounds healing with minimal scaring and in record times.

Although most organisms do not grow in honey, for application to open wounds it is recommended the use of active manuka honey that has been sterilized by gamma radiation, which has been shown not to affect the activity of the honey. The criteria for buying manuka honey presented in the previous section are particularly important for wound honey. As in the case of manuka honeys for other applications, the lack of regulatory supervision in the USA allows for the sale of products of dubious quality and provenance, some even carrying the term "official" but without providing crucial information. The criteria outlined in the box can be used to ensure that the honey bought for wound healing is actually active manuka and complies with the regulatory rules of Australia and New Zealand, which closely supervise the production of honey for wound healing.
Criteria for buying manuka honey wound healing products in the USA
  • The provenance of the honey should be verifiable. Products packaged in Australia or New Zealand should carry a lot number and an expiration date
  • The apiary that produced the honey should be a member of the New Zealand Manuka Honey Association
  • The activity should be expressed in UMF units, and not in alternative scales
  • If packaged in the USA, the seller should provide information on points 1-3
  • Wound healing products are regulated as drugs in Australia and New Zealand, and should therefore carry registration numbers from Medsafe (New Zealand) or the Therapeutic Goods Administration (Australia)
Download bibliography on honey for wound healing
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Studies on wound healing

The importance of honey sterility in wound healing