When bees collect the nectar that they turn into honey, they add a variety of substances one of them is the enzyme called glucose oxidase but this enzyme is activated it produces hydrogen peroxide which is a little bit like bleach but the exciting thing about the way it's produced in honey is that it's at high enough levels to inhibit the microbial growth that could cause infection but at low enough levels that it doesn't damage your tissues as the healing.Microbiologist Dr Shona Blair explains:"Some honeys like Jarrah from Western Australia have very high levels of this antimicrobial activity…"… some interesting lab studies we've compared the activity of Manuka type honeys to the peroxide type honeys like Jarrah or Red Gum what we've found is that the peroxide honeys are more active than the Manuka honeys"