For more than ten years one of our most popular products has been the specialist medical grade item Comvita Manukacare. It was also a product that had tremendous positive feedback for the help it provided people in healing hard-to-heal leg ulcers and all sorts of various wounds, on people and also on animals. Different to the jars of manuka honey, Manukacare was a tube of medical grade manuka honey that had been sterilised and made suitable for external use on wounds.
However the Manukacare name has always been somewhat unique to the UK and Europe market (they weren't able to use the original 'Woundcare' name on packaging in this market.
In recent years Comvita has been transitioning most of its specialist medical products for wound use to their Medihoney brand name. The actual honey still comes from the same place, with Comvita have a specialist apiary (beekeeping unit) producing their medical grade honey.
Globally most of the Medihoney branded products are now distributed under license by a company called Derma Sciences, who have the knowledge and expertise when it comes to things such as getting regulatory approvals of products for medical use markets.
Thus products such as the Apinate Dressings that had previously come under Comvita's own name, a few years ago changed to the Medihoney brand, and with Derma Science's name also shown on the packaging.
There has now been a similar change to the Manukacare product. Manukacare itself has now been 'stopped'. i.e no longer being produced or packaged under that name.
The equivalent product to the Comvita Manukacare is now the Medihoney Antibacterial Medical Honey. It is still a 50g tube of medical grade honey, that has been sterilised. Although that sterilisation process may now occur in Canada, the honey still originates from New Zealand.
So for all your external wound care uses, whether on leg ulcers or other wound types, the tube of honey you should now be purchasing is the Medihoney Antibacterial Medical Honey product, here.
We no longer have any stock of tube that had been packaged under the Manukacare name. For a little while now what we have had is all fresh stock of under the Medihoney packaging.
Showing posts with label manuka honey medihoney. Show all posts
Showing posts with label manuka honey medihoney. Show all posts
Thursday, May 22, 2014
Saturday, August 24, 2013
Fake Manuka Honey in the UK
This morning's Sunday Times has an article saying there is more Manuka honey sold in the UK than what is actually produced in New Zealand, let alone taking into account what is sold in the rest of the world.
Unfortunately this is something that has been suspected within the industry for some time.
There are a couple of points to make. Firstly that it is not a food safety issue at all, we have seen nothing to suggest there is anything wrong from a food safety angle with the problem products. People can still consume them. Rather it is an authenticity issue over what properties are contained in a given brand's products and what they have tested for.
Some brands have been rating there honey on a peroxide activity basis - but this has known problems with research proving that the peroxide based activity is not stable. So we have no idea how they are able to assure that their labeled level of peroxide activity will still exist by the time the consumer buys it.
The other point is that the most common reason people buy manuka honey is with an expectation of receiving something extra to other honeys, and that extra property is the non-peroxide activity.
How do you know if Manuka Honey is Genuine?
Here are 5 tips for consumers to be aware of.
Or you can find examples of genuine UMF Manuka honey here.
The New Zealand Honey Shop has only ever sold UMF certified jars of honey.
Unfortunately this is something that has been suspected within the industry for some time.
There are a couple of points to make. Firstly that it is not a food safety issue at all, we have seen nothing to suggest there is anything wrong from a food safety angle with the problem products. People can still consume them. Rather it is an authenticity issue over what properties are contained in a given brand's products and what they have tested for.
Some brands have been rating there honey on a peroxide activity basis - but this has known problems with research proving that the peroxide based activity is not stable. So we have no idea how they are able to assure that their labeled level of peroxide activity will still exist by the time the consumer buys it.
The other point is that the most common reason people buy manuka honey is with an expectation of receiving something extra to other honeys, and that extra property is the non-peroxide activity.
How do you know if Manuka Honey is Genuine?
Here are 5 tips for consumers to be aware of.
Or you can find examples of genuine UMF Manuka honey here.
The New Zealand Honey Shop has only ever sold UMF certified jars of honey.
Saturday, March 17, 2012
Cardiff Metropolitan University Shows More Evidence of Medical Manuka Honey's Effectiveness For Wounds
OK, so this is not quite new news - it did come out at the end of January / start of February. Just we've been busy on other things and not posted on this blog since then.
It does however provide another example of why you need to be very careful in what you read in the media, and how lazy and / or poor journalists can be in not reporting important aspects of a story.
In this case, the researchers at Cardiff Metropolitan University made it quite clear that their work related to proper medical grade manuka honey, and plainly stated that it was important that people do use a correct medical grade manuka honey if they are going going to apply it to wounds.
Unfortunately very few media reports included that point, and only generically mentioned manuka honey. Even a doctor who posted on his blog about the research, and has a good history of finding holes and limitations in other published research made this same error in this case.
It is not only very poor but for this situation potentially dangerous too. There is a significant enough problem of substandard honey, and both misleadingly and falsely labelled product widely being sold in the UK and other countries. The poor reporting will lead to people trying to use low quality and inappropriate honey on their wounds in the false expectation it will help. Some jars that haven't undergone sufficient filtration could even contain things that could be harmful to a wound.
It is a pity because this newly published research from Cardiff is very promising in showing how approved medical grade manuka honey has been effective against another bacteria common in wounds, but also works when biofilms are present - something that is common in hard to heal wounds.
Rather than trying to paraphrase too much here, is better just to point you a decent summary of this new research:
Cardiff Metropolitan University research shows promise of medical manuka honey for wounds
Great examples of approved products (eg with a medical devices license) for wounds are the ManukaCare with 100% medical grade honey or the Medihoney Apinate manuka honey dressings.
It does however provide another example of why you need to be very careful in what you read in the media, and how lazy and / or poor journalists can be in not reporting important aspects of a story.
In this case, the researchers at Cardiff Metropolitan University made it quite clear that their work related to proper medical grade manuka honey, and plainly stated that it was important that people do use a correct medical grade manuka honey if they are going going to apply it to wounds.
Unfortunately very few media reports included that point, and only generically mentioned manuka honey. Even a doctor who posted on his blog about the research, and has a good history of finding holes and limitations in other published research made this same error in this case.
It is not only very poor but for this situation potentially dangerous too. There is a significant enough problem of substandard honey, and both misleadingly and falsely labelled product widely being sold in the UK and other countries. The poor reporting will lead to people trying to use low quality and inappropriate honey on their wounds in the false expectation it will help. Some jars that haven't undergone sufficient filtration could even contain things that could be harmful to a wound.
It is a pity because this newly published research from Cardiff is very promising in showing how approved medical grade manuka honey has been effective against another bacteria common in wounds, but also works when biofilms are present - something that is common in hard to heal wounds.
Rather than trying to paraphrase too much here, is better just to point you a decent summary of this new research:
Cardiff Metropolitan University research shows promise of medical manuka honey for wounds
Great examples of approved products (eg with a medical devices license) for wounds are the ManukaCare with 100% medical grade honey or the Medihoney Apinate manuka honey dressings.
Thursday, December 9, 2010
Great new Medihoney Skincare products
We know many of you will be a little preoccupied with Christmas now, however hot on the heels of our recent addition of Honey Sticks beeswax crayons, we now have two more great new products available - this time gentle skincare.
As part of the Medihoney Skincare range, these two new items provide everyday help for sensitive skin prove to dryness, eczema and dermatitis.
Medihoney Gentle Body Wash and Medihoney Gentle Body Lotion are now in stock and able to be ordered.
Medihoney Gentle Body Wash give you a sophisticated soap-free formulation is specifically designed for sensitive skin. It will leave your skin feeling soft and smooth all day long.
One Product, Three Actions:
Cleanses: Gently cleanses sensitive skin.
Hydrates: Hydrates dry skin to help support the natural barrier properties.
Restores: Softly conditions and replenishes the skin.
The complementary Medihoney Gentle Body Lotion helps support the natural barrier properties of the skin, helping to retain moisture where it is most needed.
One Product, Three Actions:
Moisturises: Moisturises to relieve skin prone to dry, itchy patches.
Nourishes: Hydrates dry skin to help support the natural barrier properties.
Replenishes: Gently replenishes the skin.
Suitable for sensitive skin including skin prone to:
Dryness
Eczema
Dermatitis
Medihoney™ Gentle Body Lotion will leave your skin feeling soft and smooth all day long.
See all our Medihoney products here.
Monday, November 9, 2009
Oncology Dietitians
Today the British Dietetic Association Oncology Group held a study day in London around head and neck cancer.
We were invited along to have a stand providing information on manuka honey to the attending dieticians.
Talking to them, many already had quite a few patients who were taking manuka honey. They were keen to learn more between taking it internally and the specialist medical wound products for external use.
Being professionals they were also quite interested to know about the research side of things, and what supporting research and clinical trials had been done.
There is highlights of and links to some of research on our website in the manuka honey information section.
However we do also hold quite an extensive reference list of many of the studies that have been made around the world.
If you are a professional in the medical field and would like to know more about UMF® manuka honey, then please feel free to get in touch with us and ask any questions you have. You can do so via email from our website, or could make use of the forum there to ask as well. The research reference list can be provided on request.
We were invited along to have a stand providing information on manuka honey to the attending dieticians.
Talking to them, many already had quite a few patients who were taking manuka honey. They were keen to learn more between taking it internally and the specialist medical wound products for external use.
Being professionals they were also quite interested to know about the research side of things, and what supporting research and clinical trials had been done.
There is highlights of and links to some of research on our website in the manuka honey information section.
However we do also hold quite an extensive reference list of many of the studies that have been made around the world.
If you are a professional in the medical field and would like to know more about UMF® manuka honey, then please feel free to get in touch with us and ask any questions you have. You can do so via email from our website, or could make use of the forum there to ask as well. The research reference list can be provided on request.
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
More Comvita products re-branded as Medihoney
As part of its strategy of aligning their main wound care products under the Medihoney brand, Comvita are making some changes to a few of their existing products.
This will see what were previously called Comvita Apinate Dressings now re-branded as Medihoney Apinate Dressings. These will also be in a larger pack of 5 (versus the previous 3 pack).
These will sit alongside the Derma Cream and Medihoney Wound Gel. Although the existing Comvita ManukaCare 18+ is expected to keep its same name for the UK market.
The New Zealand Honey Shop will keep listing many of these items under both categories - Manuka Honey and Medihoney - for the time being. And of course please feel free to give us a call, or send an email, with any questions you have over any of these name changes.
You can see the range of Medihoney branded products here.
This will see what were previously called Comvita Apinate Dressings now re-branded as Medihoney Apinate Dressings. These will also be in a larger pack of 5 (versus the previous 3 pack).
These will sit alongside the Derma Cream and Medihoney Wound Gel. Although the existing Comvita ManukaCare 18+ is expected to keep its same name for the UK market.
The New Zealand Honey Shop will keep listing many of these items under both categories - Manuka Honey and Medihoney - for the time being. And of course please feel free to give us a call, or send an email, with any questions you have over any of these name changes.
You can see the range of Medihoney branded products here.
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