What clinical trials have evaluated Manuka honey for peripheral neuropathy and what were their outcomes?
Executive summary
Clinical trials directly testing Manuka honey for peripheral neuropathy symptoms are sparse; most human trials in the available record examine Manuka honey as a topical wound therapy for neuropathic diabetic foot ulcers rather than as a systemic treatment for neuropathic pain or nerve regeneration [1] [2]. Laboratory and review literature suggest biological plausibility—antimicrobial, anti‑inflammatory and polyphenol effects—but randomized controlled clinical evidence for improving neuropathy symptoms (pain, numbness, paresthesia) is limited or not reported in the provided sources [3] [4].
1. What the clinical-trial record shows: wound care, not nerve cures
The clearest clinical-trial evidence in the search relates to Manuka honey–impregnated dressings for neuropathic diabetic foot ulcers, a condition that often coexists with peripheral neuropathy, rather than trials of Manuka honey aimed at reversing neuropathic pain or nerve injury itself; a prospective, randomized, controlled, double‑blinded study of 63 type 2 diabetic patients treated neuropathic foot ulcers tested Manuka honey dressings and reported on healing and microbiology outcomes [1] [2]. ClinicalTrials.gov also holds entries for Manuka honey in wound-care contexts (e.g., NCT02259491) but the available snippet does not describe neuropathy‑specific outcome measures or results in detail [5]. Overall, clinical testing in humans seems concentrated on wound-healing endpoints rather than neuropathic symptom endpoints [1] [3].
2. Outcomes reported in the wound‑focused trials
The randomized study cited (Kamaratos et al.) investigated healing and microbiology of neuropathic diabetic foot ulcers with Manuka honey‑impregnated dressings; the article and ResearchGate summary indicate the trial enrolled 63 patients and assessed ulcer healing in a neuropathic diabetic population [1] [2]. The provided sources indicate these kinds of trials report benefits for wound management in some cases, but the broader reviews stress that robust, large randomized data are still limited and that technical, ethical and commercial factors have constrained definitive trials [3] [6]. Specific numeric outcomes (healing rates, time‑to‑closure, pain score changes) are not provided in the available snippets; the full papers would need to be consulted for exact effect sizes [1] [2].
3. What these trials do—and do not—say about neuropathy symptoms
Trials of Manuka honey dressings for diabetic foot ulcers address wound healing and local infection control in patients who often have peripheral neuropathy; they do not, based on the supplied material, directly evaluate nerve function recovery or neuropathic pain as primary outcomes [1] [2]. Reviews and commentaries caution that while Manuka honey has antimicrobial and wound‑healing properties, there is “a paucity of robust clinical data” for some indications and inadequate randomized trials specifically addressing nerve healing or neuropathic symptom relief [3] [7]. Available sources do not mention randomized clinical trials that test systemic or topical Manuka honey specifically for reducing neuropathic pain, restoring sensation, or regenerating peripheral nerves in humans with peripheral neuropathy [4] [3].
4. Biological rationale and preclinical signals
Mechanistic and preclinical literature point to possible neuroprotective effects mediated by honey polyphenols, antioxidant activity, and anti‑inflammatory pathways—studies and reviews discuss honey’s antioxidant/polyphenol content and experimental models where honey influenced neurological outcomes [4] [8]. Manuka honey’s antimicrobial attributes and unique compounds (e.g., methylglyoxal/UMF) are well described and underpin its wound‑care use, but those same components raise questions in diabetic wounds—reviews have flagged that methylglyoxal could theoretically affect healing and demand careful study in diabetic populations [9] [7].
5. Conflicting perspectives and limitations in the reporting
Wound‑care advocates and regulatory moves (e.g., a Manuka honey–containing collagen dressing approved for wounds, per a 2025 Medscape piece) frame Manuka products as clinically useful in ulcers [10]. Conversely, systematic reviews and commentaries emphasize limited trial numbers, small sample sizes, methodological challenges (blinding, placebo controls) and commercial incentives that complicate unbiased research [3] [6]. Some authors call specifically for randomized controlled trials assessing safety and efficacy of Manuka honey in diabetic ulcers and, by extension, clearer studies if one wants to claim benefits for neuropathy itself [7] [6].
6. Bottom line and what a clinician or patient should take away
If your question is whether randomized clinical trials show Manuka honey improves peripheral neuropathy symptoms (pain, numbness, burning) in humans, available sources do not mention such trials; existing clinical work tests Manuka honey for wound healing in neuropathic diabetic foot ulcers, with some positive signals but with limited, small trials and calls for larger randomized studies [1] [3] [7]. Mechanistic and preclinical work provides plausible pathways for benefit (antioxidant/anti‑inflammatory), but translational human evidence for neuropathic symptom relief is not demonstrated in the supplied material [4] [8].
If you want, I can pull the full Kamaratos et al. 2012/2014 paper, the ClinicalTrials.gov record[11], and the systematic reviews cited here to extract exact numeric outcomes, safety signals, and methodological details—those documents would let us state effect sizes and statistical significance precisely [1] [5] [3].