Some Swedish results about manuka and swedish honeys benificial healing. translated with google
mvh edward :-P
"A little more about Antibacterial properties of honey Swedish
The pilot study conducted at the Department of Microbiology, Tumor and Cell Biology (MTC), Karolinska Institute 1006th
The work has a background that reads: The use of honey and its by-products with medicinal purposes has been known since ancient times. More recently (this was written in 2006), this once again become topical due to the need to find new effective agent against antibiotic-resistant or difficult to treat bacteria, especially from open wounds. How can this natural product have such a positive impact? Possibly because the honey is a combination of antibacterial factors, including from the west country.
For example:
a Osmotic effect. The high concentration of sugars may inhibit bacterial growth.
b Hydrogen peroxide content. Hydrogen peroxide was once used to clean wounds and is a natural component of some honey types. The hydrogen peroxide may also be produced by heating of the honey by the enzyme glucose oxidase cleaves probes glucose. This enzyme is produced in the glands of bees and transferred to the nectar. The concentration was previously made use of to clean wounds (3%) caused damage to the tissues. The amount of hydrogen peroxide in honey contrast corresponds to one thousandth of this and released gradually. The tissue damage does not.
c Low pH-value between 3.2 and 4.5 which acts selectively against many bacteria.
d High in antioxidants.
E. Anti-inflammatory effect which prevents excretion from callus tissues.
f Positive stimulation of lymphocytes and phagocytes that is normally part of our immune system. 0.1% honey solution can provide positive stimulation.
g Bacterial Inhibitory substances from plants. The best known case is Manukahonung from New Zealand. Manukahonungen comes from Leptospermum scoparium (New Zeeländskt Tea tree) and have shown high antibacterial effect. In Australia and other countries, it has also been shown that there is local honey types with good antimicrobial properties.
In the preliminary study, we tested five different honeys.
1 Manukahonung with the UMF 10 +. UMF = Unique Manuka Factor - a measure of antibacterial activity which is not due to hydrogen peroxide, the equivalent concentration of phenol. Manuka bush provides different levels of the UMF factor in different areas of New Zealand. In some areas it is very low in others it reaches up to 10 and maybe the 15th
2nd Lind honey from Sörmland
3rd Summer Honey from Sörmland
4th Honeydew honey from Västerbotten
5th Heather Honey from the West Coast.
Results from agardiffusionsförsök with 4 different Swedish honeys, compared with Manukahonung, shows that only bacteria belonging stafylokockarter inhibited, other tested pathogenic bacteria not affected by any of honey varieties. Because Staphylococcus is the bacteria that most commonly causes wound infections, this is an important result. Different types of honey was shown to inhibit various staphylococci. Ex. S. epidermidis 29887 was inhibited only by manuka and heather honey and the other S. epidermisstammen inhibited by all honeys.
A summary of the results of two tests on MARA plates showed that the sugar solution, as expected, showed only a weak inhibitory effect. Manukahonungen showed the strongest effect. Heather seems to have some effect while summer honey was comparable to a sugar solution. Manuka and heather honey affects different microorganisms that indicates that different antibacterial substances may be active.
The natural bacterial presence in honey were also studied, and the bacteria eliminated by sterile filtration. It turned out that all the honey samples, except lime honey, contained relatively high levels of bacteria, despite the high concentration of sugar. Phenotypically seemed to grow few different species on each honey variety, homogeneous colonies looked like. No bacterial growth was found in the filtered sample.
The sketch for the continuation of the project, which is not lost, the idea was to explore a variety of honeys from different parts of Sweden and the Nordic countries. Ex. heather honey from different parts of the country but also bell heather honey and purple bell heather honey from the Norwegian west coast. Honeydew honey from different parts of the country and so on. Somewhere, perhaps we have a similar gem that Manukahonungen to happiness for the beekeepers who reside in the neighborhood. The honeys tested were crystalline, but it might be interesting to also investigate nyslungad, fresh honey.
Further work would also involve a further development of MARA method. Pollen analyzes would also provide more reliable information about the flora, the honey comes from.
Conclusion: The preliminary study has provided many interesting ideas for further studies"
