a tribute to sweet, healing honey…thank you bees!

A study was published in December 2007 aimed at determining if honey would be as effective as dextromethorphan (DM), a commonly used ingredient in most over-the-counter cough syrups for children. The participants were from 2 to 18 years of age with upper respiratory tract infections, nocturnal symptoms, and an illness duration of no more than 7 days. The study was divided into three groups…those that received a single dose of honey, those that received the DM and those that were given no treatment. The conclusion of the study determined that honey may be a preferable treatment for the cough and sleep difficulty associated with childhood upper respiratory tract infections. Parents rated the honey as the best for symptomatic relief, and as a parent myself…I would have to say that that part of the conclusion is what spoke to me. If a parent says their children slept better, it means that the parents slept better as well. As a parent, sleep is a precious resource, its value highly regarded…but that is a whole other blog topic.

We have a product by Honey Gardens Apiaries in Vermont on our shelf that I have used with my own children with good results. Apitherapy Honey Wild Cherry Bark Syrup has a wonderful blend of raw honey and herbs that help to calm coughing, while also promoting expectoration and facilitating the coughing that does occur to be as productive as it can be…getting up any nasty stuff that needs to come up from the lungs. It can be used with children 2yrs and up..and works great for adults too. I would also use any of the honeys we carry, simply on a spoon before bedtime or in a nice hot cup of lemon water or the milk of your choice.

Rainbow carries a number of different choices in honey. We have a variety of Blackberry, Fireweed and Raspberry from a local company, Moon Valley, in Arlington. And a selection of the Honey Garden Apiaries as well.

We also stock Manuka Honey and Thyme Honey from New Zealand. Maunka is the Maori name for Leptospermum scoparium. In an article in the Washinton Post, the Center for Disease Control (CDC) is quoted stating that “Manuka has attracted attention because, in an era when the efficacy of pharmaceutical antibiotics is under threat, it has shown some promise in the treatment of wounds infected with especially challenging bacteria, such as methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), the superbug whose incidence increased 32-fold in U.S. hospitals between 1976 and 2003.” New Zealand manuka honey is sold with the activity of its phytochemical antibacterial component rated on a scale of 0-20, with the active number being the equivalent concentration of phenol with the same antibacterial activity against Staphylococcus aureus (i.e. UMF 15 = 15% phenol). Rainbow’s New Zealand honeys are rated with a 14+ and 15+ healing activity. In studies, manuka honey also has shown effective activity against e. coli and Helicobactor pylori. Honey has traditionally been used topical healing properties on cuts, scrapes, burns, boils, scabies; and currently has been used on many other skin conditions other than those listed, such as diabetic foot ulcers.

So, growing up…I only thought of honey as a sweet treat to put in tea…or as a flavor of graham crackers. And yet, here all along…it has been good medicine, well maybe not in the graham crackers. As Hippocrates stated so concisely many years ago…”Let food be your medicine, and medicine be your food.”

**A bonus for the honey lovers out there…Sarah Woodson, of local Downing Pottery, has a new line that includes some…pardon the pun, very sweet honey pots. We also carry her tea cups with strainers. They are so simple, clean and beautiful.

I’ve always loved Earl Grey tea! I was reminded of that the other day upon catching the aroma of a particularly good batch we have in our bulk tea section. I always wondered what gave the tea its distinctive scent and flavor and was told it was the essence of bergamot. When I became interested in herbal medicine, I discovered the plant Bee Balm, also called bergamot. Its odor brings to mind the flavor of Earl Grey, but something always seemed more oregano-like about it. Today, a couple guys came into the store wanting to purchase bergamot leaf in order to make beer with an Earl-Grey like flavor. Unfortunately for them, the actual flavoring in Earl Grey is a variety of citrus fruit that originates in the Mediterranean called Bergamot Orange, and it’s not readily available in the United States.

Bergamot Orange was so named because of that similarity in fragrance to the plant native to this country called bergamot, or bee balm, botanical name monarda, also aptly called Sweet Leaf for its connections to the “sweetness of life.” It has a beautiful flower and a deep aroma and is beloved medicine to many Native American tribes. Western herbalism hardly takes notice of it, but Matthew Wood in The Book of Herbal Wisdom describes it as “one of the primal healing plants of North America” illustrating “one of the seven great truths which we confront on the medicine path.” Wood also makes the connection between Sweet Leaf and elemental fire, both within and without, bringing healing to burns, drawing out excessive heat from the body, as well as encouraging our expression of the fires of passion within us. “Sweet Leaf,” he writes, “is a medicine plant which helps us to sense beauty around us and also helps us deal with the passion that is stirred as a part of our human nature.”

Monarda also brings healing to the nervous system, especially around stomach and digestive issues related to simply “swallowing too much” in the way of sensory stimuli, once again proving to put out the “fire” caused by such turmoil. For example, it has proven effective in treating tinnitus, that unbearable constant humming and ringing of the ears, which can be traced to either physical or emotional roots.

We sell Sweet Leaf in bulk at our herb counter, as well as in tincture form by Wise Woman Herbals. I’m drinking a cup of the tea right now and I’m feeling in touch with the “fire” in a respectful and moderated way.