My mom keeps a jar of a certain type of honey in her kitchen at all times, called Manuka Honey, and strangely, she’s been known to use it for other things besides eating it. Have you come across Manuka Honey before? I was first introduced to it by my mom, who’s a big proponent of looking for effective ways to stay healthy by using natural, alternative home products.

Manuka Honey is one such product. Years back, my mom had read some articles talking about the many benefits of honey in general, and shortly after that, my sister visited New Zealand where Manuka Honey is produced, and she brought a small jar back to my mom. My mom had never heard of this kind of honey before, so she started doing some research to learn what information she could about it. She was quite impressed with what she discovered.

Unbeknownst to many, natural, or raw honey has long been recognized for its medical and healing properties, with archaeological evidence showing that both the ancient Egyptian and Greek cultures used it for medicinal treatments and health care. Natural, raw honey in its unprocessed state is known to have strong antibacterial properties and was used to treat wounds and bacteria borne infections until as recently as the mid 1900’s, when antibiotics arrived on the scene. Honey, along with Colloidal Silver (which I’ve also written about), both fell into disuse at that time, and not until recent years has an interest in them been revived.

So what makes Manuka Honey different from regular honey products? Manuka Honey is made by bees gathering nectar from the flowers of the Manuka bush, which is indigenous to New Zealand. This particular type of honey has been demonstrated to have special, unique, and superior healing properties even to antibiotics. Natural, organic honey is excellent for putting on burns, bedsores, cuts and abrasions, even things like acne and rashes. It is an effective healing agent for open wounds like burns and bedsores because it creates a moisture barrier over the wound, keeping infection out while speeding the healing of the area. Several studies and tests have been done on burn units in hospitals recently, comparing the use of Manuka Honey to antibiotic ointments, and the honey proved to be superior not only in the speed of healing, but also in greatly reduced scar tissue.

Next time you burn yourself in the kitchen, don’t reach for butter—put some honey on the area and you’ll be amazed at how quickly the pain goes away and the skin heals. Honey has anti-inflammatory properties as well, so it also helps to reduce blistering and swelling around the burn.

It’s important to note that not all honey available for purchase is the same. Much of the honey you find on grocery store shelves has been highly processed, destroying many of the beneficial health qualities of the honey. For health and medicinal purposes, it’s important to purchase honey that is raw and in its natural state. I also learned from my mom that generally the darker the honey, the more antioxidants it contains, which is another great benefit of honey. I had never known that honey could come in different shades and types, and have different medical properties. One note of warning and caution. I've just learned from a fellow Hubber that foreign honey can sometimes cause an allergic reaction. Be watchful the first time you use it to treat a wound or burn.

My mom loves to put a dab of Manuka Honey in her tea, but I also observed her using it for something else several years ago. She had been out trimming a tree in our back yard which was close to the house and ended up falling off the top step of the ladder in the process. As she fell, she scraped her forearms badly down the stucco of our house. Her arms looked pretty nasty since most of the skin was missing, leaving large raw, open, weeping areas. My mom just reached for her jar of Manuka Honey and slathered it all over her arms, then wrapped them in gauze to protect them and also to keep the sticky honey off her clothes. When she showed me her arms a week later, I couldn’t believe how quickly they had healed! To this day, you could never tell from looking at her arms that she’d had that serious accident. It sure made a believer out of me about the healing power of Manuka Honey.