Introduction

Everyone is familiar with the fact that Honey is filled with lots of natural nutritional value and it also provides benefits to human body. There are different types of honey’s available in the markets. People who are health conscious they try to take honey in their diets at least once in a day and is a natural remedy that was used in ancient times for treatments of many body diseases. In ancient times people used honey as a medicine, especially in flu and fever is also used in many cooking recipes that enhance the flavors of food.

Source of honey

Manuka honey Activon tube

Manuka honey is naturally produced in New Zealand. When manuka bushes are pollinated by honey bees it is obtained. Some of the major manuka honey benefits include its use for wounding infections as it provides the fastest natural remedy and against any infections and revival process is also fast. It is thus used as a medicine.

Associated healing power of honey

Fast healing power is among one of the major manuka honey benefits. For the purpose of curing multiple health conditions honey was used in old days. In ancient times medicine was not very common so people relied on natural remedies. In 19th century it was studied through research that honey consisted of many antibacterial qualities. Any damage that was caused to body parts by bacterial actions can be reduced by using honey. When body tissue damage due to infections it has been found that use of honey repaired the damaged tissues. Honey consists of natural ingredients that are helpful in growing tissue cells thus resulting in a fast recovery of tissues. Honey can also be used as anti-inflammatory actions. As it can provide a remedy against inflammation. If honey is applied on skin pain also reduces.

However, every honey is capable of providing antibacterial treatment. But the intensity varies depending on the type of honey. Good quality honey is likely to provide fast and long lasting effects compared to low-quality honey. One of the best types is identified as honey that is obtained naturally and does not contain any artificial ingredients.

Components of honey

To study the benefits it is important to study the components of honey. it consists of hydrogen peroxide that is the main source of providing antibacterial quality to honey. One other component that it contains is methylglyoxal. MG has been seen almost in every type of honey but the level varies in different types. Manuka honey consists of larger proportions of MG that is a reason for making its healing power more strong compared to other honey’s. MG is usually obtained from another component that is known as dihydroxyacetone. This compound is basically obtained from manuka flowers. The honey has obtained its antibacterial properties from MG. People who want to avoid medicines and rely on natural remedy they can use this honey as it is enriched with components that are capable of providing faster anti- bacterial action and remove the infection.

Essentially, studies have demonstrated that with short- and long-term training experiments, no resistance to Manuka Honey Treatment emerges. This is of particular significance in an age where antimicrobial resistance outstrips the rate at which new antimicrobial treatments are discovered and where there is real concern that species resistant to all known antibiotics could become rife. The problem of resistance can be exacerbated, for example when microorganisms grow as a biofilm. Such organisms are afforded intrinsic protection in the form of an extra-polysaccharide layer which restricts the diffusion of antimicrobials meaning that therapeutic doses do not reach all bacteria within the biofilm, causing infection to recur. Therefore the biofilm mode of growth, by hindering diffusion, could provide an ideal environment whereby microorganisms are exposed to sub-lethal doses of antimicrobial thus providing a selective pressure for the emergence of resistance.

Previous studies have shown that following treatment of established biofilms of P.
aeruginosa biofilms, the bacterial biomass appears non-viable by fluorescent microscopy, but with a large amount remaining attached to the sub-stratum. This study aimed to determine whether viable cells were, in fact, present within this biomass, since the published data showed only top-views of biofilms rather than three-dimensional Z-stacks that might have revealed any embedded viable bacteria, deeper within the biofilm, and if so to ascertain whether these persistors exhibited resistance to manuka honey treatment. Here we report that isolates of P. aeruginosa, recovered from manuka honey treated biofilms, which appeared to contain only non-viable biomass, exhibited increased resistance to manuka honey treatment, a trait that was sustained despite repeated sub-culture. These isolates were also more resistant to other antibiotics and demonstrated enhanced biofilm forming capacity.

Photo by H. Smithers