When I use them fresh, I just pull the stems of the ends (so the honey can get inside), cover with honey and mash them a little bit, not enough to get the hairy bits everywhere, just enough to bruise them some. For external use I prefer to leave the seeds in there for honey, tincture or oil, since the seeds themselves are so full of healing properties.

Or, if you want to eat the rose hips all soaked in honey, then it does work better to just use the seeded berries.

I love how that works, with everyone inspired and interested by a common theme! The interconnected herbal mind

Could be cuz we’re all a bunch of foodies, and we wan’t everything to be tasty too.

So this would be direct application as opposed to internal use. And they’re specifically referring to Manuka honey and Manuka itself is very antimicrobial.

Theoretically then, we’d need a honey made from a plant that had similar qualities. Probably not your typical clover honey.

We do know that all high quality honey is generally antimicrobial.

Here’s a quote from a pubmed study that can be found at http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?Db=pubmed&Cmd=ShowDetailView&TermToSearch=16099322&ordinalpos=1&itool=EntrezSystem2.PEntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsPanel.Pubmed_RVAbstractPlus

RESULTS: Twelve of the 13 bacteria were inhibited by all honeys used in this study with only Serratia marcescens and the yeast Candida albicans not inhibited by the honeys. Little or no antibacterial activity was seen at honey concentrations <1%, with minimal inhibition at 5%. No honey was able to produce complete inhibition of bacterial growth. Although Medihoney and manuka had the overall best activity, the locally produced honeys had equivalent inhibitory activity for some, but not all, bacteria. CONCLUSIONS: Honeys other than those commercially available as antibacterial honeys can have equivalent antibacterial activity. These newly identified antibacterial honeys may prove to be a valuable source of future therapeutic honeys.

Another study on pubmed says that SOME kinds of honey have been found active against Candida.

Of course, all these studies are in vitro, which doesn’t seem very practical to me.

So, anyone got any first hand experience? And how does the sugar content (which feeds yeasts) even out with the antibacterial effects and what’s the bigger pattern here?

http://iadr.confex.com/iadr/2004Hawaii/techprogram/abstract_43358.htm

it talks about its effectiveness for oral candida. in another section, it talks about honey being effective against other types of fungus.

i couldn’t find a direct link to where she got her research. i may email her and ask her if she remembers where she found it.

It seems to be the year of herbal honeys.

We’re all writing about them on our blogs and talking about them on the herbwifery forum.

I wonder why now?

But yes, warm the honey and put it through a mesh strainer, muslin may work eventually but it’s a sticky nightmare in the meantime.

Oh yes, the SJW honey would be wonderful for burns and wounds!

How do you do that Kiva? Warm the honey and then strain through muslin? Preserve with?

I made SJW flower honey last summer, grinding the flowers first. It’s an interesting taste, but I haven’t used it internally for medicine yet, just taking the occasional taste. It might make a good wound healer though, especially burns? I hadn’t thought of that.