Find out about East Cape Mānuka oil
Fragrant, evergreen manuka trees from the East Cape region of New Zealand, much loved by the indigienous Maori people for centuries, hold the secret to optimal skin health. Mānuka leaves contain a unique, bioactive-rich oil with scientifically proven antibacterial, anti-inflammatory, wound healing, antioxidant and antiaging properties. Sustainable plantations and production facilities in rural New Zealand produce this precious ingredient for discerning formulation chemists all over the world.
As the islands making up New Zealand were geographically isolated and predator-free for more than 80 million years, New Zealand has developed an indigenous landscape, plants and animals are unlike anywhere else in the world. Even now, more than 80% of New Zealand’s plants are indigenous and have many outstanding bioactive properties that help improve the health and wellbeing of people. One of the most remarkable and globally researched of these plants is New Zealand mānuka, botanical name Leptospermum scoparium.
One of the main reasons for the bioactivity-richness of mānuka may come as a surprise. New Zealand has among the highest levels of ultraviolet (UV) light in the world because of its location beneath a large hole in the ozone layer. Indigenous plants have developed protective bioactive chemicals that act as “plant sunscreens”. These chemicals include polyphenols in mānuka flowers that end up in mānuka honey, as well as protective triketones and terpenes in mānuka leaf essential oil.
These “plant sunscreen” compounds hide another surprise: they have a wide array of antibacterial, antiviral, antifungal, anti-inflammatory, antioxidant and wound healing properties that are beneficial not only to the plants themselves, but also to humans and animals in a variety of ways.
What is Manuka Oil?
Mānuka oil is a precious essential oil extracted from oils sacs found in mānuka leaves.
The Story
How It's Made
Manuka oil is extracted through steam distillation, a technique that involves no chemicals.
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