Australia's Manuka honey is generally lighter in color, while New Zealand's is darker, but this cannot be used to identify the authenticity of Manuka. Manuka honey is a specialty of Oceania and is not unique to New Zealand.
If you're traveling to New Zealand or Australia, you'll often be asked by friends or colleagues to bring a little Manuka honey. This honey is expensive, but because of its miraculous health benefits many domestic consumers are attracted to it.
Peter Molan, a retired New Zealand academic and scientist, has been researching the benefits of honey for 30 years. The nectar they produced was frowned upon by the local bees that pollinate the Manuka flower.
Moran says: "This honey used to be thrown away. If you have tasted pure Manuka honey, you will find it has a very heavy flavor. People don't like the flavor."
Then, however, Moran discovered something unique about Manuka honey. Unlike other honeys in the world, Manuka honey appears to have antibacterial properties. Some studies have also shown the honey helps with wound healing and boosts the immune system.
While many of the health benefits of Manuka honey have yet to be proven, as soon as word of its supposed healing properties spread out of New Zealand, it jumped off the fringes of the honey world and into the globalized, multi-million-dollar chain. Celebrities such as tennis player Novak Djokovic and actress Scarlett Johansson have also added to its cachet.
It's like a global gold rush.
Reader's guide
One: Is Manuka honey a panacea?
Second, Manuka honey has become a "standard" for the rich in China
Third, Manuka honey prices soared, "gold rush" side effects
Fourth, Australia's Manuka honey is not inferior to New Zealand, the related industry The Manuka honey is a miracle cure?
Historically, the Manuka tree was used as an herbal medicine by the Maori people of Oceania, while Manuka honey was sold at a very low price to local herders as sugar water to feed their cows. As a result, the herders found that the cows that drank the Manuka honey water were less prone to disease, and they speculated that Manuka honey might have some health benefits. Later, biologists carried out a lot of research and confirmed that Manuka honey has very good "non-peroxide antibacterial activity".
It is now one of two approved medical grade honeys in the world, and is mainly used to promote wound healing and improve oral and gastrointestinal health.
So overall its antimicrobial activity is relatively clear, so are the other benefits worth believing in?
Manuka honey is often referred to as a "superfood" for many ailments, including allergies, colds and flu, gingivitis, sore throats, staph infections, and wounds of all types; it can even boost energy, detoxify the body, lower cholesterol, treat diabetes, improve sleep, brighten skin tone, reduce hair loss, and strengthen the body's immune system. skin color, reduce hair loss, and strengthen hair texture.
Many advertisements mention the following benefits:
1
Antibacterial activity of Manuka honey on a variety of bacterial and fungal wound infections caused by the promotion of healing;
2
Improve indigestion, kill bacteria that cause gastric disorders, alleviate gastric ulcers, diarrhea, duodenal ulcers and other gastrointestinal disease symptoms, clear the bowels to protect the stomach
3
Highly efficient antioxidant & antibacterial properties, excellent effect in skin healing, beauty;
4
Good effect on laryngitis, neutralize the acidity of the oral cavity to maintain dental health;
5
Contains a high level of antioxidant substances to improve the overall immunity, enhance the human body's stamina.
But the truth is that some of these effects are actually backed by science, while others are unreliable arguments.
While the scientific community has only begun to understand the value of Manuka in recent decades, the Maori people, the indigenous inhabitants of New Zealand's Manuka Honey region, have been discovering for centuries that the Manuka tree is a miraculous "medicinal plant", often used to treat a variety of wounds and infections, skin ulcers, eczema, and more.
It wasn't until the mid-20th century that the popularity of medicinal honey began to wane due to the advent of modern antibiotics, and western medicine characterized it as a non-medicinal but harmless food.
But the emergence of superbugs (which are resistant to some, many, if not all antibiotics) means that we need to continue scientific research into other alternative therapies for dealing with pathogens.
We now know that honey has traditionally often been used as a wound dressing, almost certainly because of its antibacterial properties.
The high sugar content and low pH mean that honey can inhibit microbial growth, but certain honeys retain their antimicrobial activity when diluted to negligible concentrations.
When glucose oxidase (the enzyme in honey) reacts with glucose and oxygen molecules in water, many different types of honey also produce hydrogen peroxide that can reach bacteria-killing levels.
So when honey is used as a wound dressing, it absorbs water from the tissues, and this reaction produces hydrogen peroxide that clears infected wounds.
While all honeys have some degree of antibacterial activity, certain honeys are 100 times more active than others.
How is Manuka different from other honeys?
Manuka honey is extracted from the nectar of the Manuka tree, and its powerful antibacterial activity is due to a special ingredient.
This unusual antibacterial activity was discovered by Professor Peter Moran of New Zealand in the 1980s, when he realized that the effects of Manuka honey persisted even after the hydrogen peroxide had been removed.
The reason for this remained elusive for many years until 2008, when two laboratories independently identified methylglyoxal (MGO) as the key active ingredient in Manuka honey.
Does Manuka honey kill superbugs?
The activity of Manuka honey has been tested against different types of microorganisms, particularly those that cause wound infections, and it inhibits problematic bacterial pathogens, including superbugs that are resistant to multiple antibiotics.
Manuka honey also disperses and kills bacteria in biofilms (communities of microorganisms resistant to antibiotics), including streptococcus and staphylococcus.
Most importantly, there have been no cases where bacteria have been shown to be resistant to the honey, and there have been no cases where germs have been shown to be resistant to Manuka or other honeys in laboratory studies.
The researchers believe that their findings will likely increase the clinical use of manuka honey now that doctors are facing the gradual loss of effectiveness of antibiotics in controlling wound infections.
In addition, there is a real need for a new and effective way of controlling wound infections that doesn't increase bacterial resistance; and as well as costing less, Manuka honey may also help to improve the effectiveness of antibiotics in the future, reducing the likelihood of drug-resistant bacteria spreading.
Manuka honey and wound healing
Honey has ideal wound dressing properties and there has been much research into the efficacy of Manuka as a wound dressing. In addition to its broad-spectrum antimicrobial activity, honey is non-toxic to mammalian cells, helps to maintain a moisturized wound environment (which is conducive to healing), has anti-inflammatory activity, reduces healing time and scarring, has a natural wound-cleansing action action (absorbs dead tissue, foreign bodies and dead immune cells from the wound), and reduces wound odor. These attributes relate to many reports showing the effectiveness of honey as a wound dressing.
Honey, particularly Manuka honey, has been used successfully in the treatment of infected and non-infected wounds, burns, surgical incisions, leg ulcers, pressure sores, traumatic injuries, meningococcal lesions, side effects of radiation therapy and gingivitis.
"
New research has shown that Manuka honey with a high UMF rating (which refers to the antimicrobial content of active Manuka honey, a measure of the degree of antimicrobial activity in Manuka honey) is more effective at promoting wound healing than low-grade or regular honey.
"
Researchers at the University of Sydney compared the effectiveness of Manuka honey with different UMF ratings (ranging from 5-20 based on antimicrobial activity) and regular honey purchased from the store in healing large, bleeding wounds on a horse's leg.
They said the findings were "quite striking" and applicable to humans.
The study, published in the Australian Veterinary Journal, is further proof that Manuka honey has antimicrobial properties and that the title of powerful healer is well deserved.
The higher the UMF, the higher the antimicrobial activity and the higher the price.
Studies have found that if wounds are treated daily with UMF 20 honey, they heal up to 12 days faster than wounds treated with regular honey and untreated.
In fact, wounds treated with regular honey do not heal any better than untreated wounds.UMF5 honey does produce some positive effects.
UMF and MGO Grading Methods
Manuka honey activity is measured in different ways, and the UMF and MGO indices are converted into a table as follows:
Summary of the health and medical effects of each index:
UMF5+: Low medicinal properties, suitable for daily use to maintain immunity.
UMF10+: health care, suitable for low immunity, the elderly to take.
UMF16+: for people with mild gastrointestinal problems. Such as poor digestion, easy to diarrhea stomach pain in the crowd.
UMF20+: suitable for people with severe gastrointestinal problems, because of its excellent antibacterial repair effect is also suitable for post-operative rehabilitation products, can promote wound healing.
The therapeutic benefits of Manuka honey
Most Manuka honey sold worldwide is actually eaten. This is because, while Manuka may have the power to inhibit the bacteria that cause sore throat (gingivitis) sore throat or gingivitis, the main ingredient responsible for the anti-microbial activity will not survive the digestive process.
Consumption of honey does, however, have some therapeutic benefits, including anti-inflammatory, antioxidant and prebiotic (promoting the growth of beneficial gut microbes) properties. Although these properties are not only associated with Manuka honey, while various other honeys may also play a role.
What Manuka honey can't do
It's widely believed that eating Manuka (or local) honey will help with hay fever because it contains small doses of the pollen that causes the symptoms, and that consuming it in small amounts will help your immune system learn not to overreact.
But in fact, there is no scientific evidence that eating honey can help hay fever sufferers. Most of the pollen that causes hay fever comes from plants that are wind-pollinated (and therefore do not produce nectar and are not attracted to bees).
There is some preliminary experimental work that suggests that honey may go some way to preventing some of the side effects of radiation therapy on the head and neck, but this conclusion needs to be proven by further investigation. But as far as we can see, there is no scientific evidence that honey has anti-cancer properties for the time being.
Also, if you put honey on your hair in the expectation that it will act as a conditioning treatment, you'll get nothing but a sticky, messy scene.
Also, there is no strong scientific evidence that manuka has any cholesterol-lowering, diabetes-treating or sleep-improving properties. Although there has been an interesting study showing that honey is more effective than cough medicine at reducing nighttime coughing in children and improving sleep (and their parents). Although Manuka honey has not been specifically used to treat coughs, it does have some efficacy.
But it's important to note that any claims that Manuka honey has any "detoxifying" properties are ridiculous. There is also no scientific evidence for the anti-ageing benefits of Manuka honey cosmetics.
In conclusion, if consumers are purchasing Manuka Honey for general daily use as a food or supplement, they do not need to purchase the expensive range. However, if you wish to use Manuka Honey as a wound dressing, it is important to purchase a professional sterile, medicinal product with appropriate packaging.
With the world facing a growing crisis of antibiotic resistance, Manuka Honey, with its proven clinical value, is becoming even more popular. Manuka Honey is also one of the most popular gifts for Chinese people when they visit their friends and relatives.
Two
Manuka honey has become the "standard" among China's wealthy
Today's Manuka honey is in high demand among China's wealthy, where ongoing concerns about food safety have greatly increased the market demand for natural imported health foods.
The Manuka Honey Association of New Zealand is known to have more than 100 honey companies as members. According to a report in the New Zealand Herald, the price range for Manuka honey in bulk in New Zealand is NZ$6-74, or RMB29-352 per 500g.
But when Manuka honey traveled across the ocean and entered China, its value immediately multiplied. In Tmall, Jingdong, 1 store mall and other websites to "Manuka honey" as the keyword search, each product are more than 100, the price from 2300 yuan / 500g to 60 yuan / 500g ranging from the same specifications of the domestic ordinary honey, the price is more than 10 times.
In 1 store mall, a named "UMF20 + New Zealand original imported Manuka honey 250g/12 bottles" selling price as high as 13,999 yuan, the equivalent of 2333 yuan/500g.
Tmall a "Mallika MELITA Manuka UMF20+ New Zealand imported natural treasured honey 340g" is priced at 1,198 yuan, about 1,700 yuan / 500g, while in the New Zealand MELITA official website, this product is 205.85 New Zealand dollars, equivalent to 978 yuan, the price difference between domestic and foreign prices of 220 yuan.
The high price determines that only those who are really rich can afford to consume it. Globally, the high price of Manuka honey stems from the fact that demand outstrips supply, but imports from China are inherently more expensive than in other countries, especially in the luxury sector.
The honey is viewed in the same way that Koreans are remembered to view ginseng - as a high-value food that you need to take over time to maintain good health.
James Roy, associate director of Shanghai-based China Market Research Group in Shanghai, said: "Unlike other luxury items such as an LV bag or a trip to the Maldives, consumers don't buy Manuka honey for vanity or status.
Shirley Kwun, a 29-year-old operations manager in Shanghai, said her mother in Hong Kong had started buying Manuka honey a few years ago and used it as a sugar substitute in her breakfast porridge. Now, when traveling to New Zealand, Ms. Kwun and other family members are also buying the honey. She says: "My mother was the first among her friends to buy linseed oil, so I guess she's at the forefront of these things."
Like other sought-after health foods, the Manuka honey market is growing through word of mouth. Of course in an age of fakes, origin is a key factor. As a result, the leading brands then began to change their marketing strategies, stocking up in New Zealand stores favored by Chinese tourists and promoting their products on Chinese social media.
Brett Hewlett, chief executive of Comvita, New Zealand's largest producer of Manuka honey, said: "Word of mouth has always been the main driver of our marketing campaigns, and [the Chinese] are very skeptical of traditional marketing - for example. Anything endorsed by a celebrity is repeatedly questioned. What they trust most is what their friends or relatives tell them by word of mouth. "
Back in May, Comvita posted record operating profits, which amounted to NZ$10.2 million ($6.6 million) for the company's latest financial year, up 28 percent from the previous year. Some of this was driven by demand from Chinese tourists. Domestic sales in New Zealand increased by 92 percent and e-commerce sales were boosted by 55 percent.
In recent years, a large number of informal sellers have sprung up on China's Taobao marketplace and microblogging services to meet the growing demand. Sellers with names such as New Zealand Healthy Living and Nourishing Life have both begun to sell jars of Manuka Honey for less than the list price. The sellers of
Three
Manuka Honey Prices Soar, a Side Effect of the 'Gold Rush'
The Daily Mail, a British media outlet, has written an article questioning whether the ever-popular Manuka honey is the real deal. According to New Zealand's main honey producers' organization, New Zealand produces 1,700 tons of Manuka honey a year, but it is estimated that as much as 10,000 tons of honey is sold under the Manuka honey label globally each year.
Manuka honey is a world-renowned New Zealand specialty, which comes from bees that collect only the honey from the Manuka camellia tree, and is popular among consumers for its medicinal properties. To date, demand for Manuka honey has always outstripped supply, resulting in some producers passing it off as good. The expensive Manuka honey currently being sold around the world is far more expensive than it is actually produced.
Counterfeiting has plagued the Manuka honey industry in the past.
A 2011 inspection by the UK's Food Standards Agency found that 11 out of 23 types of Manuka honey produced in New Zealand were not Manuka honey at all.
The New Zealand Manuka Bee Association carried out similar sampling tests of Manuka honey on the UK, Chinese and Singaporean markets in 2012 and 2013, which resulted in 41 out of 73 samples being falsified.In 2014, China imported 2,131 tons of New Zealand honey, or 36.8 percent of the total amount of imports, with a significant portion of the total claimed to be Manuka honey.
The spate of counterfeiting has been a headache for the New Zealand government, especially since regulators in importing countries, including China, have asked them how to identify the product and they can't tell what is authentic Manuka honey.
"
The fact is that honey bees harvest honey randomly, and although Manuka has a specific flowering season and area of distribution, it's virtually impossible to stock 100% Manuka honey.
"
In an effort to salvage the reputation of Manuka honey, New Zealand's Ministry of Primary Industries brought together the industry, businesses and experts, and it took three years to finally develop a standardized definition of Manuka honey, which was formally released in 2017, a first for the bee products sector.
This standard*** involves methoxybenzoic acid, hydroxyphenolactic acid, phenolactic acid, methoxyacetophenone, and five characteristic indicators of Manuka pollen DNA, and only the content of all of them can be called Manuka honey. According to the different values of the indicators, there is also a distinction between two kinds of Manuka solo flower honey and Manuka mixed flower honey.
But while the introduction of the new standard will go some way to curbing the counterfeiting of Manuka honey. But the fact is that all quantifiable indicators cannot be an absolute barrier for counterfeiters. As long as the profits from counterfeiting are high enough, the counterfeiters are able to follow the standard and add these characteristic substances to get by. So for consumers who love Manuka honey, staying rational is more important than anything else.
The huge demand from the Chinese market is putting pressure on producers to keep up production and move on.
In the last two years, Manuka honey star Comvita has had to double its number of hives to 30,000 in order to ensure a steady supply of honey. Other producers are also expanding into remote areas of New Zealand, with hive equipment being flown in by helicopter.
It's like a gold rush in progress. New Zealanders are buying hives in droves and placing them near any planted manuka trees in a bid to harvest some manuka honey.
But one of the things that hasn't been too much of a concern for New Zealanders is competition, as only Australia, which also grows manuka trees, poses some threat.
Four
Australian Manuka Honey is not inferior to New Zealand's, and the industry is ready to grow
According to a recent study by Australian academics, Australian Manuka Honey is not inferior to New Zealand's renowned Manuka Honey in terms of clinical efficacy. This means that in the future, New Zealand will no longer be able to claim that they produce the best Manuka honey in the world.
Researchers at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) have now found that Australian Manuka honey is just as powerful as New Zealand's Manuka honey when it comes to antibacterial properties.
Nural Cokcetin, who authored the study, said the findings were "exciting" and could have significant economic benefits for Australia's 12,000 beekeepers, as there is only one type of Manuka tree in New Zealand, compared to more than 80 types of Manuka trees in Australia.
Researchers studying more than 80 samples of Manuka tree flowers from New Zealand and Queensland found that the same nectar derivatives that are responsible for the unique antimicrobial properties of New Zealand's Manuka honey are also found in Australia's Manuka tree species.
This means that Manuka honey is not just for New Zealand, but Australian honey can get a piece of the New Zealand pie!
It has been reported that there is only one species of Manuka tree in New Zealand, and the bees are infested with parasitic mites; while the Australian Manuka tree has up to 80 species and is not infested with mites, which means that Australian Manuka honey has a certain advantage in the market competition.
In Australian media reports, Australia's Manuka honey industry has been described as a "potential billion-dollar Manuka honey industry".
Daniel Jones, a beekeeper in Queensland, said the market price of a kilogram of ordinary honey is 5-6 dollars, while a kilogram of Manuka honey sells for as much as 30-40 dollars, which is 5-8 times more than ordinary honey.
But what's stopping Queensland's Manuka beekeepers from growing their high-potential business?
Turns out, the land on which the Manuka trees grow is currently owned by the state. To keep bees here, beekeepers must pay a royalty, and any unauthorized use of the land is illegal.
Robert Dewar, president of the Queensland Beekeepers Association, said this was restricting the further development of Australia's Manuka honey industry.
"We're not going to cut down the trees, quite the opposite it's the very trees we rely on. We're just trying to clear the other grasses and trees around the Manuka trees to reduce the risk of hill fires."
Dewar also notes that their New Zealand counterparts, the Manuka beekeepers, have received full support and close cooperation from the New Zealand government. They feel they are making the most of the resources nature provides to produce this precious medicinal honey. "Yet look at Australia, our government has done nothing to help, instead restricting us."
In a statement, the Department of Natural Resources and Mines (DNRM) is said to be aware of the beekeepers' claims. While there are large areas of wild Manuka shrubs growing in national parks across Australia, current Australian legislation prohibits any non-wildlife, including domesticated bees, from entering to harvest honey. This ban is expected to be repealed in 2024.
Homemade medical-grade Manuka honey WA is off to a good start
Western Australia is likely to export its own medical-grade Manuka honey by the end of this year, according to reports. While most of this honey has been produced in New Zealand up to now, privately owned WA company Manuka Life has already begun to pioneer the home-grown Manuka honey industry.
Manuka Life manager-director Paul Callander said the company's goal was to grow the tea tree, which in turn would provide a new business opportunity for WA farmers. Once continuity of supply is established, the downstream local pharmaceutical industry will also be developed.
To support this new industry, the Rural Industries Research Development Corporation has awarded Manuka Life A$750,000 over three years and will work with Kings Park and the Botanic Garden. Botanic Garden.
The funding will be used to breed tea tree hybrids that are heat and cold tolerant so they can be planted across Australia and extend the flowering period from six weeks to six months, with seeds remaining commercially viable for up to four years.
Western Australia's Manuka honey industry has already taken off, with Manuka Life collecting superior varieties from New Zealand and Australia and planting 150 hectares of Leptospermum scoparium tea trees last year, mostly in the southwest, with 25 hectares planted in the Wheat Belt to test its salt and heat tolerance. Half of the wheatbelt tea trees survived and were quite successful, offering hope for an extended flowering period. Un
500 hectares will be planted in each of the next three years to prepare the company for the full expansion of its products. Once the number of products increases, its downstream products may appear in three or two years.
END
Manuka honey is expensive, so make sure you buy a trusted brand."
The article concludes with three key points for your readers to consider when shopping for and consuming Manuka honey:
Choose a trusted retailer
Watch out for salespeople who are exaggerating when describing Manuka honey, and whether they understand the difference between UMF and Active+. Also, ask the retailer if they have visited the honey factory of their honey brand and how much they know about the honey harvesting process.
Choose a trustworthy brand using UMF as a standard
Look out for the UMF logo and index on the packaging of Manuka honey brands, and check the UMFHA website (http://www.umf.org.nz/) to see if the brand is really a member of the association in case some brands are skimming off the top. Logging on to the brand's website and learning about the honey collection process will also help you make the right choice.
Do not consume with hot water
Manuka honey should not be consumed with hot water as it can nullify the antibacterial properties of the honey. It is recommended to serve with warm water, or directly drizzled on toast, yogurt or cereal.