Intravenous Administration of Manuka Honey Inhibits Tumor Growth and Improves Host

Intravenous Administration of Manuka Honey Inhibits Tumor Growth and Improves Host Survival When Used in Combination with Chemotherapy in a Melanoma Mouse Model
Manuka honey has been recognized for its anti-bacterial and wound-healing activity. In this study, we investigated the antiproliferative activity of manuka honey on three different cancer cell lines, murine melanoma (B16.F1) and colorectal carcinoma (CT26) as well as human breast cancer (MCF-7) cells in vitro. Although better control of tumor growth was observed in animals treated with paclitaxel alone or in combination with manuka honey (61% inhibition), a dramatic improvement in host survival was seen in the co-treatment group.
http://www.plosone.org/article/info%...l.pone.0055993

I find it interesting in my overseas travels how the health benefits of honey are researched and promoted in other countries (sometimes over-promoted in my opinion). In the U.S., because of the FDA and fear of overstating health benefits, we are so limited in how we can actually promote honey for medicinal purposes. I guess there is a good side to this in that "snake-oil" marketing is controlled but unfortunately many legitimate uses of honey are not marketed -- too expensive to meet FDA approval and not enough money compared to the drug industry. Thanks for sharing the article.

Why was non-manuka honey and/or a sugar syrup not used as a control?
Deknow

Quote:

---

... we are so limited in how we can actually promote honey for medicinal purposes. -pegorsch

---

Thank goodness, in my opinion. Honey is a tasty product, should be a high quality sweetener with some flavor that isn't available from other sources. More than that? Call me cynical, but I doubt it's the panacea that some claim. I am immediately skeptical of anything that is claimed to do a wide range of things ("It cures cancer, heals boils, imparts eternal youth while giving immortality, regrows hair in men with male pattern baldness while it impedes growth of body hair on females, provides relief from pain, kills bedbugs, and more!" [I exaggerate, and this is not intended to refer to any specific product]), especially when such a thing is described in such terms that it seems too good to be true.

> because of the FDA and fear of overstating health benefits, we are so limited in how we can actually promote honey for medicinal purposes.

The FDA and the drug industry are the same entity with two heads and one body. People move from the FDA to the drug companies and from the drug companies to the FDA all the time (try a google search on "FDA revolving door" and you'll find about 67,000 articles on the subject). The FDA never promotes anything that is readily and cheaply available as the cure for anything.

Isn't it specific to manuka honey though? I know I've seen articles on studying other honey's and they fall short.

I'm wondering if it was the Hydrogen Peroxide formed when diluting the honey that caused the improvement?

I haven't gone over every study carefully, but the few I have perused haven't mentioned testing against "regular" honey.

...it's also worth noting (if you are keeping score at home), that the tests used do rate the manuka honey (UMF, and there is another competing one) are standard tests....but the names have been trademarked by the trade group/university researchers that write t papers. This means that I could do the same assay on honey from anywhere....but I could not claim that it had any UMF even if it did.

Best I can tell, the difference between manuka and other honey is the presence of some tea tree oil in the honey (you can taste it). If tea tree oil is the key ingredient, it is a lot cheaper to ship (and probably to produce) than honey is.

deknow

I'll have to find the article, someone else was analyzing honey for medical purposes, I want to say it was in the UK but the questions arose could they even reproduce the results year to year as the properties were only seen in honey from a certain location and they weren't sure what the floral sources were contributing to the properties they were looking at.

...the point is, that this particular study took no steps to investigate if the "manuka" had anything to do with the effect...it could have been some H2O2, it could have been the IV injection of a sugar solution. It is like claiming that drinking milk from Jersey cows provides calcium, and not considering if the important thing is drinking milk or if it is the kind of cow.

deknow