Manuka honey in eye drops

Manuka honey is honey made by bees that forage on the mānuka plant, Leptospermum scoparium, which grows throughout New Zealand. In Quell it appears on the Drug Facts panel as one of 10 inactive ingredients, listed as “Manuka Honey.” The label makes no separate claim for it; the uses it states belong to the product as a whole, and its three active ingredients are Glycerol (1.0%), Polysorbate 80 (1.0%) and Light Mineral Oil (0.5%).

What is manuka honey?

Honey takes its character from the flowers the bees visit. Mānuka is a shrub or small tree that grows wild across New Zealand, and the honey bees make from its nectar is sold as a distinct product, separate from blended table honey. The word is Māori, which is why New Zealand’s government writes it with a macron over the first a. Product labels, including Quell’s, usually drop the macron.

How New Zealand defines it

Because mānuka honey sells at a premium, New Zealand’s Ministry for Primary Industries set a scientific definition for it. MPI describes the definition as a combination of five attributes: four chemicals that come from mānuka nectar and one DNA marker from mānuka pollen. Honey labeled as mānuka for export from New Zealand has to be tested by a laboratory MPI recognizes. MPI has said the aim is to protect consumers and producers from fraud and to give overseas markets confidence in what they’re buying.

That definition covers honey sold as mānuka out of New Zealand. It isn’t a US drug standard, and the Drug Facts panel on Quell doesn’t cite any grade or rating number for the honey it contains. If you’ve seen numbered ratings on jars of manuka honey at the grocery store, those belong to the food market and don’t appear on Quell’s label.

Why is manuka honey in eye drops?

The honest answer from the label is limited. Drug Facts panels follow an FDA format with separate sections for active and inactive ingredients. Active ingredients are the ones that carry the product’s stated uses; for Quell those are Glycerol (1.0%), Polysorbate 80 (1.0%) and Light Mineral Oil (0.5%), and the Uses line reads: For use as a protectant against further irritation or to relieve dryness of the eye. Inactive ingredients make up the rest of the formula. The panel names them but doesn’t explain what each one is there for, and it makes no claim for any of them individually.

Quell’s makers describe the formula as one that’s designed to reinforce the tear film’s oil layer to help reduce moisture loss, and they include several natural ingredients alongside the actives. Manuka honey is one. We don’t attribute any particular effect on the eye to it, because the label doesn’t. If you want to know more about how the overall formula is meant to work, the tear film’s oil layer is the place to start.

Where it sits in the ingredient list

Here is Quell’s full inactive list as printed: Caprylyl Glycol, Dead Sea Salt (Sodium Chloride), Emu Oil, Glyceryl Laurate, Glyceryl Undecylenate, Manuka Honey, Polaxamer 188, Sterile Water, Terminalia Chubula and Tromethamine. Federal labeling rules, in 21 CFR 201.66, say inactive ingredients on an OTC drug that isn’t also a cosmetic are listed in alphabetical order. That’s why manuka honey falls after emu oil and the glyceryl esters and before the poloxamer. Its position says nothing about how much is in the bottle, and the label doesn’t give amounts for any inactive ingredient.

Is it the same as the honey in my kitchen?

No, and not just because of the flower source. Kitchen honey is a food made for eating. Anything that goes into an eye drop is part of a sterile drug product made under drug manufacturing rules, and you shouldn’t put food honey, or anything else from the pantry, into your eyes. The bottle you buy is the only form in which Quell’s ingredients are meant to reach the eye, used as the directions say: Apply 1 drop 3 times per day in each eye.

Honey, bees and allergies

If you know you react to honey or bee products, mention it to a pharmacist or your doctor before trying a drop that lists honey. The label’s own caution is about a different ingredient: Caution should be used in those with egg or bird allergies — For use in the eyes only. That line refers to the emu oil in the formula, which the carton describes this way: Emu oil is an all natural oil used by the Aboriginal people of Australia for thousands of years to nourish and protect the body. In artificial tears, it provides soothing support of the tear film’s oil layer to reduce moisture loss.

• Read the whole inactive list, not just the actives, if you have any known sensitivities.
• Bring the bottle or a photo of the panel to the pharmacy counter so the pharmacist sees the exact wording.
• If your eyes hurt, look different or your vision changes after using any drop, stop and see a doctor.

Does it affect the color?

Quell is not a clear drop. The label’s description is: Product appears as a milky brown solution. It doesn’t break the color down ingredient by ingredient, so we won’t either. The important part is that the milky brown look is expected, and that the label says not to use the bottle if it changes from that. Its exact Do not use wording is: If this product changes color.

Vegan and other dietary questions

Honey is an animal-derived ingredient, made by bees, and Quell also contains emu oil. People who avoid animal products for dietary or ethical reasons will want to know that before ordering. Is Quell vegan? answers that directly, and the natural ingredients in Quell covers the other plant and animal sources on the list.