How to use it
- Apply at least five times a day to the affected area, and more often if you want to
- Start at the first sign of tingling or redness
- Continue until the cold sore has fully healed
- Use one tube for one outbreak, then discard it — reusing a tube risks contaminating it
- It is edible and safe to swallow
How it works
A cold sore is effectively a difficult-to-heal wound on the lip. The formulation works by creating conditions on the skin that support healing — keeping the area hydrated and acidic.
- Osmotic effect. Little free water is available for micro-organisms to grow.
- Hydrogen peroxide. Released slowly on contact with skin, with antiseptic properties.
- Acidity. pH 3.2–4.5 discourages microbial growth.
- Antioxidants. Bioflavonoids and others may contribute to its activity.
- Glycerine. Improves spreadability and keeps the product temperature-stable.
What the trial found
952 adults were recruited through 76 community pharmacies across New Zealand between 2015 and 2017 — the largest cold sore trial ever run in this country. Participants were randomly assigned either the kānuka honey formulation or 5% aciclovir cream, the standard pharmacy treatment, both applied five times daily.
- Comparable healing times — a median of 9 days with kānuka honey and 8 days with aciclovir, a difference that was not statistically significant (hazard ratio 1.06, 95% CI 0.92 to 1.22, p=0.56)
- Comparable results on every secondary measure, including pain and treatment acceptability
- No related serious adverse events
Semprini A, Singer J, Braithwaite I, et al. Kanuka honey versus aciclovir for the topical treatment of herpes simplex labialis: a randomised controlled trial. BMJ Open 2019;9:e026201.
Trial registration ANZCTR ACTRN12615000648527. Read the paper
What this means. Very few natural products are ever tested directly against a pharmaceutical. This one was — at scale, in real pharmacies, against the treatment most people are already handed over the counter. Healing times, pain and acceptability came out comparable, with no statistically significant difference between them.
The trial compared the two treatments against each other rather than against a placebo, so it measures kānuka honey against the standard option rather than against no treatment at all.
