Why no hydrogen peroxide
No hydrogen peroxide generation in Manuka honey
The enzyme in honey made by bees that is responsible for the formation of hydrogen peroxide is called glucose oxidase. Manuka honey is special because glucose oxidase is stopped from working properly because of the methylglyoxal that is present in the honey.
What this means is that part of the normal enzyme chemistry responsible for hydrogen peroxide in Manuka honey is broken. It does not work properly. So, it is not able to generate hydrogen peroxide and the reactions between hydrogen peroxide and the other compounds present in Manuka honey are also affected.
This makes Manuka honey special. The lack of hydrogen peroxide formation. Wow. FOMO. Manuka honey has FOMO over hydrogen peroxide generation. It is interesting to think that when something is missing it gives it special properties. Most people think that having something extra would give it more interesting properties. However, in physics less is more. This again is quite confusing. The paradox comes to those who consider the way the universe works.
Manuka honey has a Photo-Fenton chemistry that compensates for the lack of glucose oxidase activity and generates hydroxyl radicals that has the ability to perform a range of chemical modifications. It is like opening a doorway to a whole new set of diverse chemistries that have wonderful properties that are not confined to just chemical reactions but a whole swathe of physics reactions.
The main one which is just phenomenal is quantum tunnelling properties of the hydroxyl radical. I will discuss this on another page of my website.
