Honey isn’t just sweet—it’s also good for you. It has proven natural antibacterial and digestive properties, and can even and help speed up the healing of wounds. But not all honey is created equal.
There’s one type that rises above the rest—especially when it comes to health benefits. And that honey is Manuka honey. What is manuka honey? Rare and precious, Manuka honey is a type of produced by bees who exclusively pollinate the flowers of the Manuka shrub, a type of tea tree native to New Zealand and Australia.
The health benefits of Manuka honey are plentiful; in fact, it is often called New Zealand gold because of its unique healing benefits—it has antibacterial, anti-inflammatory, antiviral, and antioxidant properties. It’s been used for centuries by the Maori as a natural and effective remedy to treat everything from wounds to . Modern scientific research supports this: studies have found Manuka honey to be an effective treatment against all sorts of conditions, including , gingivitis, , and .
What’s so special about Manuka honey? The power of Manuka honey lies in its unique chemical composition. It contains high levels of methylglyoxal (MGO), an organic compound with powerful antibacterial properties. This active ingredient is absent (or barely present) in other types of honey.
Because of its special antibacterial composition, Manuka honey is of inhibiting the growth of bacteria resistant to antibiotics, such as Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli.
