Plate II
Wound care
Diabetic foot ulcers, burns, post-surgical and chronic wounds. The largest evidence base — and the home of the BNF formulary listings.
The quality standard for Medical Grade Honey · Est. 2012
The quality standard forMedical Grade Honey MGH™
MGH™ — advising companies on the use of medical grade honey in regulated and premium products.
MGH™ is a unique quality standard developed by our team for honey used in regulated and premium products. We advise manufacturers, formulators and brand owners across wound care, OTC, cosmetics and veterinary on sourcing, testing and specification — with the traceability and evidence their dossiers and shelves demand.
Proud of our standard — happy to work with product developers.
13+
Years inside the category
$2.6B
Forecast market by 2034
9.1%
CAGR through 2034
A single-subject reference
"Manuka leads the medical-grade category — but a peroxide-active or polyphenol-rich honey, properly processed, can earn the same shelf."
Drawing onCochrane ReviewBNF / NICENHS Oxford HealthUCLAJ Aging Res & LifestyleFrontiers in OncologyClinicalTrials.gov
The standard
One base standard.
Add what your sector needs.
MGH™ takes therapeutic honey — Manuka, Jarrah, Sidr, Heather and other qualifying varieties — from food ingredient to controlled, tested, documented material ready for advanced wound care, cosmetics, veterinary and specialist sectors.
Read the full MGH storyStart here
MGH™
Base Standard
- Sourcing controls
- Characterisation (MGO / DHA / aw / pH)
- Independent testing
- Batch traceability
- Documentation & COA
Non-negotiable · every batch
+ add-ons
+ add-ons
01
Additional Testing
Bioburden, endotoxin, residue and pharmacopoeial-aligned panels.
02
Extra Processing
Filtration, conditioning and handling matched to your specification.
03
Sterilisation Support
Gamma-compatible spec and validated post-sterilisation activity.
04
Regulatory Support
Dossier-ready documentation for MDR, 510(k), cosmetic and veterinary files.
One-stop-shop
MGH covers it end-to-end — from sourcing through to research & development, testing and regulatory support.
Varieties
MGH™ is not one honey.
It is a standard.
Any honey with a credible therapeutic profile can qualify. The varieties below carry distinct activity markers — and each has its own evidence base for advanced wound care, cosmetics, OTC and veterinary use.
See all varietiesNew Zealand · Australia
Manuka
MGO — non-peroxide activity
Read about ManukaWestern Australia
Jarrah
TA — high peroxide, low GI
Read about JarrahYemen · Middle East
Sidr
Ziziphus spina-christi
Read about SidrUK · Northern Europe
Heather
Polyphenol-rich, thixotropic
Read about HeatherMalaysia · SE Asia
Tualang
Multifloral, peroxide-active
Read about TualangEurope · N. America
Buckwheat
Polyphenol-dense, dark
Read about Buckwheat"Supported by systematic reviews and meta-analyses, medical-grade honey was identified as the most potent and all-round wound care product compared to the others."
The category in numbers
A small category riding a serious shift back to natural healing.
The global medical-grade honey market is on a credible doubling trajectory — driven by chronic-wound prevalence, antimicrobial resistance, and a measurable consumer return to nature-derived, evidence-backed therapeutics across Manuka, Jarrah, Sidr, Heather and other therapeutic varieties.
- $1.2B
- Global market
- Base year 2025
- $2.6B
- Forecast
- by 2034
- 9.1%
- CAGR
- 2026–2034
- 61.4%
- Manuka share
- of category, 2025
Chronic wounds & diabetes
537M+ adults with diabetes today, projected 780M+ by 2045 (IDF). 15–25% lifetime DFU risk; chronic wounds cost the US system >$96B/year.
Antimicrobial resistance
AMR drives ~1.27M deaths/year globally. Honey's multi-mechanistic action is structurally hard to resist — endorsed in WUWHS and EWMA wound-care guidelines.
The shift to natural
$65B+ global natural-health products market in 2025. Premium NPA / MGO Manuka brands now command pharmacy and DTC shelf space across skin, throat and gut.
Where it shows up
Wound care, ophthalmology, oncology — and veterinary medicine.
Plate III
Lab & dossier
MGO/DHA quantification, sterility validation and stability under accelerated storage. Where claims are won or lost.
Plate IV
Veterinary
Equine, companion animal and livestock topical applications. A quietly serious market with its own formulary discipline.
Sister company · bulk sourcing
Need the honey itself? BulkHoneyCo.com handles verified bulk Manuka with MGO/DHA spec, COAs and origin traceability — same team, same standards.
Get in touch
Ask a question,
get a straight answer.
Contact us for information or advice on Medical Grade Honey — Manuka or otherwise. Chemistry, evidence, specification or sourcing.
Contact usFrequently asked
Common questions on Medical Grade Honey.
The questions clinicians, formulators and buyers ask most often. Longer answers — and the references that sit behind them — live in the articles and science sections. Patients and carers should start with our medical honey patient guide.
- What is medical grade honey?
- Medical grade honey is honey that has been sourced under controlled conditions, characterised for activity (typically MGO, DHA, water activity and pH), sterilised — usually by gamma irradiation at around 25 kGy — and manufactured under ISO 13485 for use in or alongside a registered medical device. It is not a flavour or a flower — it is a process and a regulatory file.
- Is medical grade honey the same as a medical device?
- No. Medical grade honey is the raw material or active ingredient. The finished medical device — a wound dressing, eye gel or topical product — carries the CE mark, 510(k) clearance or equivalent registration. MedicalGradeHoney.com is an independent reference site; it does not manufacture or register medical devices.
- What does MGO mean on a Manuka honey label?
- MGO is methylglyoxal, expressed in milligrams per kilogram. It is the principal non-peroxide antibacterial in Manuka honey and the most direct chemical measure of its activity. A medical-grade Manuka specification will typically declare an MGO floor and a stability curve over shelf life rather than a single release number.
- Does sterilisation destroy the activity in Manuka honey?
- Not meaningfully. Gamma irradiation at 25 kGy reduces peroxide activity in non-Manuka honeys because the enzymes that generate peroxide are damaged. Manuka's signature activity is methylglyoxal, a small non-enzymatic molecule that is essentially unaffected by gamma. Industry batch-release data routinely show MGO retention ≥ 95% post-sterilisation.
- Is Manuka honey always the right choice?
- No. Manuka adds heat- and catalase-stable MGO activity, which is essential for sterilised dressings, infected or biofilm-bearing wounds, and regulated antimicrobial claims. For straightforward debridement, moist wound healing, veterinary topical use or culinary applications, a well-handled peroxide-active honey is often clinically equivalent at a fraction of the cost — Manuka can be more than ten times the price.
- How does honey help a wound heal?
- Honey is roughly 80% sugar, so it creates a strong osmotic gradient that draws fluid out of the wound. This delivers autolytic debridement, maintains a moist healing environment for granulation and re-epithelialisation, and displaces odour-producing metabolites — all independent of any antibacterial chemistry. In Manuka honey, methylglyoxal adds a quantified antibacterial layer on top.