A new and ambitious local player has entered the therapeutic honey market.
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Honey has been used as a medicine for thousands of years, in ancient Egypt, China and India, by Aristotle and Hippocrates. But apart from the charm of the word itself, the sweet taste and the warm glow, what exactly is so great about honey still largely depends on whom you talk to.
Researchers and honey producers in New Zealand tend to emphasise the virtues of honey from manuka, which is indigenous to Australasia. It’s true there is increasing evidence of the antibacterial effectiveness of manuka honey, even against antibiotic-resistant bacteria, but the specific mechanisms involved – and whether this honey is any better than others – remain unclear.
A study by Dutch researchers last year put the antibacterial power of honey down to four chemicals and a property. Honey is composed of saturated sugars, which suck up water, depriving bacteria of the liquid they need to live. (In case you were wondering, sugar has a similar effect.) It also includes hydrogen peroxide, a known antiseptic; a compound called methylglyoxal, thought to be the “manuka” factor; and defensin-1, an antibacterial peptide that bees add to honey.
Finally, the acidity of the honey is also thought to contribute to the overall effect. The combinations of the compounds and their ratio to each other seem to affect the honey’s effectiveness against different bacteria, but in what way remains a subject of scientific dispute.
But there’s no doubt honey is increasingly recognised as a substance worthy of serious microbiological analysis for its medical potental. New Zealand company Comvita has been selling medical-grade manuka honey products here and offshore for some years now, mainly aimed at the medical market, and has serious plans for expansion.
Now there’s a new player on the market. HoneyLab launched this month with two new kanuka honey products – one for cuts and burns, the other for acne and athlete’s foot, both aimed at pharmacies. They cost much more than normal honey, retailing at $29.99 for a tube, but that’s the price you pay for medical-grade honey – sterilised so all the bits of bees, pollen and hive in the average pot of honey won’t cause any skin reactions. The man behind HoneyLab is Professor Shaun Holt. Readers might be familiar with him from previous references in this column (most recently in relation to his book on natural therapies for depression). Plus he has a profile in New Zealand for his evidence-based approach to alternative therapies.
The premise of HoneyLab is that it’s in the business not just of selling medical-grade honey, but of research; the company has commissioned what Holt calls a “massive” research programme, to be done by the Medical Research Institute of New Zealand, an independent organisation based at Wellington Regional Hospital. “I’d be very confident it’s the biggest research programme looking at the medical benefits of honey in the world.”
He says it is well known that honey can help heal wounds and “kill just about any bug”, so in theory it could be used to treat eczema, skin infections, lung infections and even cystic fibrosis. “All humility aside, we’re hoping this could be the new Glaxo,” he says, referring to the company that started out in the Manawatu as a baby-food manufacturer and went on to help form what has become the world’s third largest pharmaceutical company, GlaxoSmithKline.
But how much money can be made from honey by a new company facing off against more established companies with huge marketing budgets? HoneyLab might run all the research, but it can’t exactly patent a pot of honey. Holt says he has all sorts of ideas about developing medical honey-related products and, besides, if HoneyLab can prove in clinical trials that honey is an effective treatment for specific ailments, this would only pertain to HoneyLab’s honey.
“We could have a nice marketing campaign and sell loads of honey right now and do very well. But we want to make medical products, because it’s a good thing to do and it makes a better business as well. When we do these big trials and get good results, they will only apply to our honey and our formulations. You can’t assume that it would work for others.” Well, maybe you could, he concedes, “but as a doctor prescribing you can really only recommend the products that have actually been shown to work”. He is nothing but optimistic. “It costs a billion to develop a pharmaceutical product, but we think we can get a few out for a couple of hundred thousand each.”