Manuka has become the darling of the honey world. And did you know it’s closely related to the tea tree? If the tea tree gave us drinking tea, we could marry the two and have a match made in heaven.
While manuka is sometimes referred to as “New Zealand Tea Tree”, in the essential oil world tea tree oil is melaleuca alternifolia whereas manuka is Leptospermum scoparium.
But they belong to the same botanical family and provide many of the same benefits, some of which we’ll get to shortly. First up, let’s talk about manuka honey, as it’s quite an interesting tale.
Manuka honey is what’s known as a monofloral honey, being produced solely from the nectar of one tree, being manuka.
A certain amount of wiggle room is permitted in this, though.
To be labelled as ‘Manuka’ honey, at least 70% of the pollen content must come from said bushy tree with the Maori name.
There’s another tree with similar flowers which blossoms around the same time and often in the same areas: Kunzea ericoides. It’s from the same botanical family as manuka (and melaleuca alternifolia). Their floral similarities make it tricky to differentiate and testing is required to do so. Bees will do what bees will do, so allowing a percentage of other pollen content in honey labelled as ‘Manuka’ is a practical way to manage this.
Manuka honey is promoted as having a wide range of benefits, some proven, some anecdotal. All honey is considered to be soothing and comforting to a ticklish throat but manuka honey is much higher in a compound called methylglyoxal and does not lose potency when it’s exposed to heat and light. Some grades of manuka honey have been proven scientifically to be supportive both in cleansing and nurturing when applied to wounds. Anecdotally, you’ll find plenty of people swearing by it for a number of home remedies.
Much like the essential oils industry, the manuka honey industry has become highly competitive and commercialised, with suspect business practices going on in order to maximise profits and tap into an unsuspecting consumer market.
Just as more lavender essential oil is sold than produced, nearly ten times the volume of manuka honey is sold as produced, begging the question what in the heck is in those extra jars of manuka honey? Unless there’s a goose laying golden manuka honey jars, something’s being significantly padded. There are also reports of hives being stolen, staking claims over adjacent areas and the like. It’s a jungle out there!
As with essential oils, it’s vital to check the credentials of the brand you’re choosing. What sort of checks and balances do they implement? Who does the testing and is it by a reputable facility? We aren’t experts in manuka honey so we’ll leave it to you to do due diligence.
But when it comes to essential oils, we’ve well and truly done our digging and you can learn in this short video why we exclusively choose Young Living, backed by the integrity of their Seed to Seal® process.
As for the essential oil of manuka, it’s derived from the chopped leaves and small stems, not the flowers. Its close cousin melaleuca alternifolia is steam distilled from leaves alone.
While both are from the Myrtaceae botanical family, only manuka is sourced in both Australia and New Zealand. Melaleuca alternifolia essential oil comes from Australia and France.
Manuka and melaleuca alternifolia essential oils are both awesome for cleansing and skin care, especially if prone to oiliness. Young Living has a wonderful Essential Beauty Serum® for oily skin and it’s enhanced with both these oils. Other uses include:
- fabulous if you’ve copped a few mozzie bites
- they’ll stop your sneakers and gym shoes from walking out the door, fuelled by their own bio-fumes
- if you’re all out of deodorant, manuka in a touch of coconut oil is helpful for keeping your armpits sociable
- a couple of drops of manuka essential oil rubbed into your scalp before retiring is a great general conditioner for the skin on your noggin. Dilute with a touch of pure Moroccan oil to help it go further
Aromatically, manuka essential oil is herbaceous and very comforting if you’re feeling overwhelmed or concerned – more so than melaleuca alternifolia, whose aromatic strengths are cleansing and refreshing. You can inhale manuka oil directly from the bottle.
Essential oils are potent, so as always, please follow directions on the bottle and the usual guidelines for safe use of authentic essential oils.
This will also connect you up with The Good Oil Team for our personal support and coaching. We'd love to help you on your journey to vibrant well-being the natural way!
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