If you are one of those intensely passionates about nature and life, use to visit from time to time herbal shops and have a look to herbal news sites, you may have heard about a very special honey type, the Manuka honey, which prices reache 2'5 times the prices of other regular honeys available in the market and has been claimed to exert many health benefits and properties. But what makes Manuka honey so special?

Manuka honey gets its name from the tree from which is being produced, the Leptospermum scoparium, Manuka tree, tea tree or simply Leptospermum, a shrub native to New Zealand [7]. Manuka flowers have been used by honey bees in New Zealand to produce one of the most famous and expensive honeys of the world, Manuka honey.

The high demand on the market caused by claims that recent scientific studies and clinical trials made on the properties of Manuka honey, ranging from its anti-Helicobacter pylori properties to its antibacterial, anti-plaque, anti-gingivitis, burn healing and skin protecting effects, and even some suggesting it may help to against certain types of cancer, entailed a price increase that may or may not be justified,  let's have a look at that. Image: Manuka flower by John Tann under CC license (CC by 2.0).

LEPTOSPERMUM SCOPARIUM

Family: Myrtaceae
Genus: Leptospermum
Common name: Manuka tree, tea tree, Leptospermum, Jelly bush.

Not long time ago we wrote an article about how Honey bees self-medicate using plants, more exactly how they were able to fight bacterial and viral infections reaching the beehive using Propolis, a  mixture of resinous products collected by bees from tree buds that was already used by Greeks, Egyptians and others to treat different diseases and affections and actually the source of Caffeic Acid Phenethyl Ester (CAPE), a substance derived from Propolis found in honeybee products, that was able to inhibit growth of breast cancer stem cells.

Now, in their search for new properties of bee by-products as propolis, and more exactly Caffeic Acid Phenethyl Ester(CAPE), researchers the University of Chicago Medicine presented a paper on what it seems to be a high step forward in the search for a cure to Prostate cancer, the ability exerted by CAPE to arrest early-stage prostate cancer by shutting down the system used by tumor cells to detect sources of nutrition, causing the consequent cancer cell arrest. Image: Bluemenbiene under CC license (CC by 2.0).

Warts are caused by a viral infection, the human papillomavirus. They appear mostly as a sign of a weak immune system and thus tell us we shall take care with our health and try to boost our immune system on a natural way. Among the most commonly used herbal treatments for this viral infection we found some that didn't surprise anyone, propolis, Echinacea and Ficus carica or common fig fruit.

ECHINACEA PURPUREA

Family: Asteraceae
Genus: Echinacea
Common name: Eastern purple coneflower, Purple coneflower.

It is certainly not new, Propolis was used ages ago by Greeks, Egyptians and others to treat different diseases and affections. Nowadays propolis continues to be a well known product in herbal supplements shops and part of many herbal remedies against different affections, including cancer.

In a clinical study presented today, Caffeic Acid Phenethyl Ester (CAPE), a substance derived from Propolis found in honeybee products, has been found able to inhibit growth of breast cancer stem cells. Image left: Honey bee by William Warby under Creative Commons License (CC BY 2.0).