Manuka plant: everything you need to know

Manuka honey is a particular variety of honey with extraordinary beneficial properties, this honey is produced almost exclusively in New Zealand where theManuka plant is born and grows.

The Manuka Plant and where it is found

The Manuka plant is found mainly in New Zealand and in some areas of Australia.

Its official botanical name is Leptospermum scoparium it was attributed by Thomas Cook due to the typical disordered branches of this shrub that referred to brooms.

The Englishman Cook landed on the New Zealand coast in 1769 and took great care of this plant, of which he especially appreciated the leaves as tea.

Furthermore, the Manuka plant has had numerous uses for therapeutic purposes known since Maori times and then handed down to the English settlers.

The Manuka plant can be presented in various sizes. As a cover crop of approximately 5 cm up to 15 meter trees.

It usually appears as a shrub whose height varies from 2 to 5 metres.

A “pioneer plant” capable of establishing itself first in deforested areas.

In New Zealand there are large hilly areas covered with Manuka plants, which give a fragrant scent and in the flowering season the hills are transformed into valleys of white flowers.

The Manuka plant offers the suitable habitat for numerous animal species, including bees which obtain honey with extraordinary properties from the nectar of this plant.

For this reason, beekeepers place their hives near these plants in uncontaminated nature to produce Manuka Honey.

Particularities of the Manuka plant

New Zealand offers the most various climatic conditions.

The Manuka plant grows rapidly and is not very demanding regarding the quality of the soil, but the characteristics of the habitat where it grows determines its quality and its antimicrobial capacity.

There are endless territories in which Manuka grows without any external intervention.

In fact,the plant itself is capable of producing substances capable of defending it from bacteria, viruses and fungi, for this reason any use of fertilizers and pesticides is really useless to make the plant grow healthy plant.

Consequently, even in the absence of the relevant organic certification mark, the resulting Manuka Honey will still be produced in a completely ecological way.

What makes a Manuka Honey “active” is still the subject of careful research.

The active ingredient responsible for its antibacterial abilities has been discovered, Methylglyoxal, but it is not yet clear what environmental conditions that induce the plant to enrich its nectar with this substance.

How Manuka Honey is harvested

The Manuka plant is robust and adaptable capable of extending widely into uncontaminated nature.

Beekeepers place their hives near these plants.

The Manuka plant flowers in mid-November approximately and the flowering process lasts 4 weeks.

As soon as the flower opens, nectar reaches the tip of the flower. The bee that lands on the flower extracts the nectar and takes it with it to the hive.
The flower will fall but more eyelets will open along the Manuka plant, creating lots of regrowth on the bush.
The bee in the hive will regurgitate the nectar and leave the task to the worker bees to process the nectar and transform it into honey which will then be stored in the honeycombs.
Human processing begins where that of the bee ends, after the bees have stored the honey in the honeycombs.

An extraordinary product is obtained from this plant, a honey that owes its powerful antimicrobial effect to Methylglyoxal, capable of supporting our defenses and making us stronger.

What is Methylglyoxal?

A team of food chemists from the Technical University of Dresden led by Thomas Henle managed to shed light and identify the unique factor of Manuka such as Methylglyoxal.

Methylglyoxal is the active ingredient present in Manuka honey responsible for its powerful antibacterial capacity and which differentiates it from any other honey in the world.

The quantification of Methylglyoxal occurs in absolute terms, in fact today it is possible to exactly determine the percentage of methylglyoxal in a given dose of honey (e.g. 100 mg of Methylglyoxal in 1 kg of honey).

The power of Manuka Honey is given by the concentration of Methylglyoxal inside it.

As we have already said it is not yet clear what environmental conditions that induce the plant to enrich its nectar with this substance.

This is still today the subject of numerous research by many researchers.

It seems that the “stress” of the plant favors a high content of methylglyoxal in Manuka honey.