Thursday, June 13, 2013

Medicinal Manuka Not All Equal: Research

GEOFF LEWIS, Waikato Times, 6/9/2013
Thirty years of research into the therapeutic uses of honey has been condensed into one spot - and written in language suited to the no-specialist reader by long- serving Waikato University Professor Peter Molan.
Professor Molan, 69, passed 40 years at Waikato in February, but retains a passion for his subject.
He recently completed his "labour of love" - condensing into one website the knowledge he has accumulated over three decades of research into the use of honey as a medicine.
"This has been written in simple language to make it fully accessible to the general public and it gives details of all the research on honey at Waikato University and the research on therapeutic properties of honey that has been done by others elsewhere in the world."
Professor Molan said honey has been known for its medicinal uses for more than 4000 years and continued to be used even after the development of antibiotics in the 1940s.
"The challenge has been to understand and provide a scientific explantation of how honey works as an anti-bacterial and anti-inflammatory agent. We have discovered that honeys vary widely in their potency and manuka honey is the best. However, there is still variation within manuka honeys depending on the variety and the purity of the nectar source."
Professor Molan said there are six or seven varieties of manuka which are believed to have arrived in New Zealand from Australia, probably with birds, before the last ice age…

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