Honey is the natural sweet substance produced by
honeybees from the nectar of blossoms or from the secretion of living
parts of plants or excretions of plant sucking insects on the living
parts of plants, which honeybees collect, transform and combine with
specific substances of their own, store and leave in the honey comb to
ripen and mature.
The composition of honey
The average composition of all honeys from all around the world are as follows:
The physiological effects of honey
Many of the traditional medicinal uses has continued until today. Few of these medicinal benefits have seen scientific confirmation and they are not always exclusive to honey. The majority is due to the high sugar content and therefore can also be found in other sweet substances with high sugar contents.
Nutritional benefits
Honey is said to facilitate better physical performance and resistance to fatigue, particularly for repeated effort; it also promotes higher mental efficiency. It is therefore used by both the healthy and the sick for any kind of weakness, particularly in the case of digestive or assimilative problems. Improved growth of non-breast fed newborn infants, improved calcium fixation in bones and curing anaemia and anorexia may all be attributed to some nutritional benefit or stimulation from eating honey.
Benefits to the digestive apparatus
Honey is said to improve food assimilation and to be useful for chronic and infective intestinal problems such as constipation, duodenal ulcers and liver disturbances. They have reported successful treatment of various gastrointestinal disorders.
Benefits to the respiratory system
In temperate climates and places with considerable temperature fluctuations, honey is a well-known remedy for colds and mouth, throat or bronchial irritations and infections. The benefits, apart from antibacterial effects, are assumed to relate to the soothing and relaxing effect of fructose.
Benefits to skin and wound healing
Honey is used in moisturizing and nourishing cosmetic creams, but also in pharmaceutical preparations applied directly on open wounds, sores, bedsores, ulcers, varicose ulcers and burns. It helps against infections, promotes tissue regeneration, and reduces scarring also in its pure, unprocessed form. If applied immediately, honey reduces blistering of burns and speeds regeneration of new tissue. A cream, applied three times per day and prepared from equal parts of honey, rye flour and olive oil, has been successfully used on many sores and open wounds -even gangrenous wounds in horses. They successfully tested a honey and cod liver oil mixture suspended in a simple non-reactive cream base on open wounds in humans, but he gave no details on proportions.
Benefit to eye disorders Clinical cases or traditional claims that honey reduces and cures eye cataracts, cures conjunctivitis and various afflictions of the cornea if applied directly into the eye. There are also case histories of ceratitis rosacea and corneal ulcers, healed with pure honey or a 3 % sulphidine ointment in which Vaseline was replaced by honey.
Medicine-like benefit
Even if no transfer of active ingredients is involved, mechanisms similar to homeopathic potentiation are possible. Empirically effective therapies such as Bach flower therapy and aromatherapy suggest that there can be much more to the medicinal value of honey than chemical analysis and quantification reveals.
Diabetes
Honey is good for diabetics. A study revealed that insulin levels were lower when compared to the uptake of equal caloric values of other foods, but blood sugar level was equal or higher than in the other compared products shortly after eating. In healthy individuals, the consumption of honey produced lower blood sugar readings than the consumption of the same quantity of sucrose.
Ayurvedic medicine
Traditional, but well-studied medicinal systems as the ayurvedic medicine of India, use honey predominantly as a vehicle for faster absorption of various drugs such as herbal extracts. Secondarily, it is also thought to support the treatment of several more specific ailments, particularly those related to respiratory irritations and infections, mouth sores and eye cataracts. It also serves as a general tonic for newborn infants, the young and the elderly, the convalescent and hard working farmers.
Other benefits
Honey is said to normalize kidney function, reduce fevers and help insomnia. It is also supposed to help recovery from alcohol intoxication and protect the liver; effects also ascribed to fructose syrups. Heart, circulation and liver ailments and convalescent patients in general improved after injection with solutions of 20 and 40% honey in water.
Energy source
As food, honey is mainly composed of the simple sugars fructose and glucose, which form the basis of almost all indications on how, when and why to use it. The main consideration is the fact that honey provides immediately available calories, from which it derives its energy value for healthy and sick people: quick access to energy without requiring lengthy or complicated digestive action. The same direct absorption also carries a risk of pathological sugar metabolism, such as diabetes and obesity.
In conclusion, although honey has been used as a medicine extensively in the past, most present day medical practitioners in the developed countries are not aware of the same and consider it as a complimentary or alternative therapy. Further research and ongoing clinical trials' success would prove useful in considering this liquid gold as a medicine than a mere sweetener.
The composition of honey
The average composition of all honeys from all around the world are as follows:
- Sugars account for 95 to 99% of honey dry matter. The majority of these are the simple sugars fructose and glucose, which represent 85-95% of total sugars.
- Water is quantitatively the second most important component of honey. Its content is critical, since it affects the storage of honey. Only honeys with less than 18% water can be stored with little to no risk of fermentation. It can be reduced before or after extraction by special techniques.
- Among the minor constituents organic acids are the most important. The organic acids are responsible for the acidity of honey and contribute largely to its characteristic taste.
- Minerals are present in very small quantities, potassium being the most abundant. Dark honeys, particularly honeydew honeys are the richest in minerals.
- Other trace elements include nitrogenous compounds among which the enzymes originate from salivary secretions of the worker honeybees. They have an important role in the formation of the honey. The main enzymes in honey are invertase (saccharase) diastase (amylase) and glucose oxidase.
- Traces of other proteins, enzymes or amino acids as well as water-soluble vitamins are thought to result from pollen contamination in honey.
- Virtually absent in newly produced honey, hydroxvmethylfurfural (HMF) is a byproduct of fructose decay, formed during storage or during heating. Thus, its presence is considered the main indicator of honey deterioration.
The physiological effects of honey
Many of the traditional medicinal uses has continued until today. Few of these medicinal benefits have seen scientific confirmation and they are not always exclusive to honey. The majority is due to the high sugar content and therefore can also be found in other sweet substances with high sugar contents.
Nutritional benefits
Honey is said to facilitate better physical performance and resistance to fatigue, particularly for repeated effort; it also promotes higher mental efficiency. It is therefore used by both the healthy and the sick for any kind of weakness, particularly in the case of digestive or assimilative problems. Improved growth of non-breast fed newborn infants, improved calcium fixation in bones and curing anaemia and anorexia may all be attributed to some nutritional benefit or stimulation from eating honey.
Benefits to the digestive apparatus
Honey is said to improve food assimilation and to be useful for chronic and infective intestinal problems such as constipation, duodenal ulcers and liver disturbances. They have reported successful treatment of various gastrointestinal disorders.
Benefits to the respiratory system
In temperate climates and places with considerable temperature fluctuations, honey is a well-known remedy for colds and mouth, throat or bronchial irritations and infections. The benefits, apart from antibacterial effects, are assumed to relate to the soothing and relaxing effect of fructose.
Benefits to skin and wound healing
Honey is used in moisturizing and nourishing cosmetic creams, but also in pharmaceutical preparations applied directly on open wounds, sores, bedsores, ulcers, varicose ulcers and burns. It helps against infections, promotes tissue regeneration, and reduces scarring also in its pure, unprocessed form. If applied immediately, honey reduces blistering of burns and speeds regeneration of new tissue. A cream, applied three times per day and prepared from equal parts of honey, rye flour and olive oil, has been successfully used on many sores and open wounds -even gangrenous wounds in horses. They successfully tested a honey and cod liver oil mixture suspended in a simple non-reactive cream base on open wounds in humans, but he gave no details on proportions.
Benefit to eye disorders Clinical cases or traditional claims that honey reduces and cures eye cataracts, cures conjunctivitis and various afflictions of the cornea if applied directly into the eye. There are also case histories of ceratitis rosacea and corneal ulcers, healed with pure honey or a 3 % sulphidine ointment in which Vaseline was replaced by honey.
Medicine-like benefit
Even if no transfer of active ingredients is involved, mechanisms similar to homeopathic potentiation are possible. Empirically effective therapies such as Bach flower therapy and aromatherapy suggest that there can be much more to the medicinal value of honey than chemical analysis and quantification reveals.
Diabetes
Honey is good for diabetics. A study revealed that insulin levels were lower when compared to the uptake of equal caloric values of other foods, but blood sugar level was equal or higher than in the other compared products shortly after eating. In healthy individuals, the consumption of honey produced lower blood sugar readings than the consumption of the same quantity of sucrose.
Ayurvedic medicine
Traditional, but well-studied medicinal systems as the ayurvedic medicine of India, use honey predominantly as a vehicle for faster absorption of various drugs such as herbal extracts. Secondarily, it is also thought to support the treatment of several more specific ailments, particularly those related to respiratory irritations and infections, mouth sores and eye cataracts. It also serves as a general tonic for newborn infants, the young and the elderly, the convalescent and hard working farmers.
Other benefits
Honey is said to normalize kidney function, reduce fevers and help insomnia. It is also supposed to help recovery from alcohol intoxication and protect the liver; effects also ascribed to fructose syrups. Heart, circulation and liver ailments and convalescent patients in general improved after injection with solutions of 20 and 40% honey in water.
Energy source
As food, honey is mainly composed of the simple sugars fructose and glucose, which form the basis of almost all indications on how, when and why to use it. The main consideration is the fact that honey provides immediately available calories, from which it derives its energy value for healthy and sick people: quick access to energy without requiring lengthy or complicated digestive action. The same direct absorption also carries a risk of pathological sugar metabolism, such as diabetes and obesity.
In conclusion, although honey has been used as a medicine extensively in the past, most present day medical practitioners in the developed countries are not aware of the same and consider it as a complimentary or alternative therapy. Further research and ongoing clinical trials' success would prove useful in considering this liquid gold as a medicine than a mere sweetener.
References
1. Adam, Brother 1953. Mead. Bee World, 34(8): 149-156
2. Adams, F. 1939. The genuine works of Hippocrates. Williams & Wilkins, Baltimore, U.S.A.
3. Adjare, S.O. 1984. The golden insect, A handbook on beekeeping for beginners. IT Publications, Russell Press Ltd., Nottingham, UK, 104 pp.
4. Apimondia 1975b. The hive products: food health and beauty. Proc. of Intern. Symp. on Apitherapy. Apimondia Publishing House, Bucharest, Romania, 154 pp.
5. Armon, P.J. 1980. The use of honey in the treatment of infected wounds. Tropical Doctor, 10: 91.
6. Ask-Upmark, E. 1967. Prostatitis and its treatment. Acta Med. Scand., 181: 355-357
7. Bergman, A. Yanai, J., Weiss, I., Bell, D. and Menachem, P.D. 1983. Acceleration of wound healing by topical application of honey. An animal model. The American J. of Surgery, 145 : 374-376
8. Burlando, F. 1978. [About the therapeutic action of honey on burn wounds.] Minerva dermatolog. 113: 699-706
9. Cartland, B. 1970. The magic of honey. Corgi Books, London, UK, 160 pp.
10. Codex Alimentarius 1994. Honey. 2nd Edition, FAO/WHO, Vol.11: 21-24
11. Codex Alimentarius 1995. Standards for honey. 2nd Education, FAO/WHO Vol.13 (in preparation).
2. Adams, F. 1939. The genuine works of Hippocrates. Williams & Wilkins, Baltimore, U.S.A.
3. Adjare, S.O. 1984. The golden insect, A handbook on beekeeping for beginners. IT Publications, Russell Press Ltd., Nottingham, UK, 104 pp.
4. Apimondia 1975b. The hive products: food health and beauty. Proc. of Intern. Symp. on Apitherapy. Apimondia Publishing House, Bucharest, Romania, 154 pp.
5. Armon, P.J. 1980. The use of honey in the treatment of infected wounds. Tropical Doctor, 10: 91.
6. Ask-Upmark, E. 1967. Prostatitis and its treatment. Acta Med. Scand., 181: 355-357
7. Bergman, A. Yanai, J., Weiss, I., Bell, D. and Menachem, P.D. 1983. Acceleration of wound healing by topical application of honey. An animal model. The American J. of Surgery, 145 : 374-376
8. Burlando, F. 1978. [About the therapeutic action of honey on burn wounds.] Minerva dermatolog. 113: 699-706
9. Cartland, B. 1970. The magic of honey. Corgi Books, London, UK, 160 pp.
10. Codex Alimentarius 1994. Honey. 2nd Edition, FAO/WHO, Vol.11: 21-24
11. Codex Alimentarius 1995. Standards for honey. 2nd Education, FAO/WHO Vol.13 (in preparation).
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