麻豆传媒

M膩nuka Honey and M膩nuka Essential Oil

We get asked all the time, "What's the difference between M膩nuka honey and M膩nuka Oil?", as well as "Does the oil come from the honey?"

The quick answer is no, M膩nuka oil is extracted from the leaves of the plant while M膩nuka honey is, of course, produced by very helpful bees.  The full explanation is much longer, but also much more interesting.

Read on to learn more...

New Zealand is known for M膩nuka.  This native shrub-like plant is commonly called "tea tree" by Kiwis, but it's not to be confused with the Australian Tea Tree (Melaleuca alternifolia); it's appearance and aroma are very different.

It is from the M膩nuka plant that we get both M膩nuka Honey and M膩nuka Essential Oil. Botanically speaking, M膩nuka's Latin binomial is Leptospermum scoparium. "Lepto" means narrow, while "spermum" means seed.  The term scoparium means "like broom", which relates to this plant's similarity to common Northern Hemisphere genera including Genista and Cytisus, although not related whatsoever.

Until recently, nearly all M膩nuka Oil was wild harvested, a very manual process, from hillsides across the "East Cape" region of New Zealand.  With the popularity of this essential oil growing, our farming partners recognized the need to develop plantations in a similar manner to how we developed our Australian Tea Tree from wild harvest to plantation methods.

Over the last two years, over 3,500,000 M膩nuka seedlings have been planted in rows by indigenous M膩ori landowners on the valley floors across the region.

These seedlings have also been hand planted by these M膩ori team members up the hills;  and with these plantings the beekeeping activities have increased as well.  This symbiotic agricultural practice is now yielding two unique products, M膩nuka Honey and M膩nuka Essential Oil, both with amazing therapeutic potential.

The following table provides further differentiation of these two natural gifts from New Zealand.

To learn more about Down Under's 100% Pure M膩nuka Essential Oil and download information, including a sample Certificate of Analysis, GC-FID profile and more, visit our M膩nuka Product Page.