Tells the remarkable and unexpected 'rags-to-riches' story of manuka honey. It describes how the discovery of manuka's unique properties caught the media's attention, and how various manuka honey-based products were developed and taken to the world. The remarkable antibacterial and therapeutic properties of manuka and its uses are outlined.

Not so long ago, in a small island nation
in the South Pacific, beekeepers produced a most peculiar honey. It was much
darker than the clover honey everyone put on their toast in the morning, and it
tasted very different. In fact, the honey was a problem: it was hard to get out
of the combs, and even harder for beekeepers to sell.

Today that honey, manuka from New
Zealand, is known around the world. It fetches high prices, and beekeepers do
everything in their power to produce as much of it as possible. Wound dressings
containing manuka honey are used in leading hospitals, and it has saved the
lives of patients infected with disease-causing bacteria that are resistant to
standard antibiotic drugs. In so doing it has forced the medical profession to
rethink its position on the therapeutic properties of natural products.

This book chronicles the remarkable
'rags-to-riches' story of manuka honey, as seen through the eyes of a New
Zealand beekeeping specialist who watched it unfold from the very beginning.
It's a great tale of science, in which an inquisitive university lecturer found
something totally unexpected in a product everyone had written off. It's also
an entertaining account of the way that seemingly simple discovery caught the
international media's attention, helping enterprising New Zealanders to develop
manuka honey-based products and take them all around the globe.

But above all else it's a story of hope
for the future, sounding a note of optimism in a world that for good reason
feels saddened and sometimes even afraid about the future of the special
relationship we humans have always had with those marvellous creatures, the
honey bees.