Flowers, Food + Forage

theafroqueerizedbeekeeper:

 Bees feeding off tea trees native to New Zealand, produce a type of honey that’s known as “Jelly Bush Honey” in Australia and “Mankuta Honey” in New Zealand. Now, scientists at the University of Sydney’s School of Molecular and Microbial Biosciences have found this particular type of honey has some amazing curative properties.

Until now, Manuka Honey has been sold in health food stores as a natural medicine. That is probably about to change. New research has shown the honey kills every type of bacteria scientists have thrown at it, including the antibiotic-resistant ‘superbugs’ plaguing hospitals and killing patients around the world.

Professor Dee Carter is one of the research team that made the discovery. She said a compound in the honey called methylglyoxal is the key ingredient to the effectiveness of the honey. However, methylglyoxal on its own is toxic but when it combines with what are, as yet, unknown compounds it causes “multi-system failure” in bacteria.

Manuka Honey Unique to New Zealand

Honey bees collect nectar from Manuka bushes (also known as Tea Trees) which grow in remote areas of New Zealand. According to Manuka Health the discovery of the anti-bacterial properties of methylglyoxal was made by Professor Thomas Henle at the University of Dresden, Germany.

The curative properties of various types of honey have been known to indigenous cultures for thousands of years, and dressing wounds with honey was common before the advent of antibiotics.

Oh, my. I’ve noticed this on the shelves at various natural foods shops. Will be buying some tomorrow.