Manuka Mythbusting

Hold onto your purse! It took me a little while to sift through the plethora of (sales based) Manuka 'research' but I did eventually sniff out some independent stuff from The Telegraph with slightly more veracity.


Basically, Manuka is a species of Tea Tree, the flowers of which produce honey with a slightly better antiseptic or antimicrobial quality than other honeys (not a great susprise given what we know about Tea Tree). Remember however, that all honeys are slightly antiseptic. Additionally, any antiseptic benefit appears to be restricted to occassions when the honey is used externally rather than eaten. One of the main reasons for this is that, when applied to wounds, (any) honey's high sugar content provides an anaerobic environment in which any antiseptics are quite effective.

The University of Waikato have done the best research and their page is excellent but not great for the scientifically uninitiated. The evidence for any benefits when eaten is sketchy to say the least, but if you're buying it instead of elastoplasts, crack on! Interestingly, the oft quoted UMF is hardly present in the University research, go figure!

I would be inclined to buy it if it tasted great (I haven't tried it but apparently it's not a patch on acacia/apple blossom/heather) and buy savlon if I had a cut! Maybe I'm too cynical but this seems to be 80% gimmick!