Facts about Honey

Some other bee species also produce and store honey, although such honey has very different properties (Crosby 2004).

Mixed with lemon juice and consumed slowly, honey coats the throat, alleviating discomfort.

Honey is considered to gradually become toxic when preserved in metal containers.

Ancient Egyptian and Middle-Eastern peoples used honey for embalming the dead.

The processing also produces a honey with a smooth spreadable consistency.

Honeydew honey is popular in some areas, but in many areas beekeepers have difficulty selling the stronger flavored product.

Honey mixed with water and vinegar was also used as a vermifuge.

Only recently have the antiseptic and antibacterial properties of honey been chemically explained.

Mexico is also an important producer of honey, providing about ten percent of the world's supply.

Honey is laid down by bees as a food source.

Ultrasonication also eliminates existing crystals and inhibits further crystallization in honey.

Heat processing can darken the natural honey color (browning), too.

Corsican honey is certified as to its origin (Appellation d'origine contrфlйe) just as French wines are.

Once the bee returns to the hive, the partially processed product is deposited into empty honeycomb cells.

Honey intoxication is more likely when using "natural" unprocessed honey and honey from farmers who may have a small number of hives.

Toxic honey may also result when bees are in close proximity to tutu bushes (Coriaria arborea) and the vine hopper insect (Scolypopa australis).

Honey is a mixture of sugars and other compounds.

Traditionally honey was preserved in deep cellars, but not together with wine or other products.

Ultrafiltered honey is processed by very fine filtration under high pressure to remove all extraneous solids and pollen grains.

Preferred by the health food trade, it may have a cloudy appearance because of the included pollen, and it also tends to crystallize more quickly than ultrafiltered honey.

Honeydew honey has a much larger proportion of indigestibles than light floral honeys, which can cause dysentery, resulting in the death of colonies in areas with cold winters.

The worker bees collect nectar, convert it into honey, and store it in honeycombs for later use.

Heat-treatment after extraction reduces the moisture level, destroys yeast cells, and liquefies crystals in the honey.

Honey should also be protected from oxygen inflow, which brings about accelerated crystallization.

After the final regurgitation, the honeycomb is left unsealed.

Honey chelates and deactivates the free iron, which starts the formation of oxygen free radicals produced by hydrogen peroxide and the antioxidant constituents in honey help clean up oxygen free radicals present (Molan 2001).

Most commercially available honey is blended, meaning that it is a mixture of two or more honeys differing in floral source, color, flavor, density, or geographic origin.

Bees today are raised in especially designed boxes with removable sections that allow easy extraction of the honey and reinsertion of the combs, without loss of the colony.

According to hadith, Muhammad(S.A.W) strongly recommended honey for healing purposes (Sahih Bukhari vol.

Some Rosh Hashana greetings show honey and an apple, symbolizing the feast.

Polyfloral honey is derived from the nectar of many types of flowers (Hughes 2005).

Honey has been shown to be an effective treatment for conjunctivitis in rats (Al-Waili 2004).

Bees collecting this resource have to be fed protein supplements, as honeydew lacks the protein-rich pollen accompaniment gathered from flowers.

Crystallized honey is honey in which some of the glucose content has spontaneously crystallized from solution as the monohydrate.

Bees gather honeydew produced by the vine hopper insects feeding on the tutu plant.

About 60 to 100 pounds (27.2 to 45.4 kilograms) of honey are produced each year by an average bee colony of 50,000 to 70,000 workers.

Honey is the main ingredient in the alcoholic beverage mead, which is also known as "honey wine" or "honey beer" (although it is neither wine nor beer).

Different monofloral honeys have a distinctive flavor and color because of differences between their principal nectar sources.

When honey is exposed to ultrasonication, most of the yeast cells are destroyed.

When it is fully processed, the honeycomb cell with the honey is capped with a thin layer of beeswax.

The honey is then poured into tanks and heated to 120°F (48.9°C) to melt out the crystals.

When conventional preservation methods are applied, it is not recommended to preserve the honey for longer than 2 (maximum 3) years.

Some pollen also gets mixed in the honey.

Finally, when fully ripened, the bees store it in honeycomb cells, capping it with a thin layer of beeswax.

The storage place should be dark and dry, preventing the honey from absorbing any moisture.

The pH of vinegar is typically in the range of 2 to 3.5, depending on the concentration of acetic acid.

When collected by people, honey is used for diverse culinary purposes as well as for medicinal purposes through topical application, taking advantage of its antiseptic and antibacterial properties.

Whipped honey contains a large number of small crystals in the honey.

Honey has a density of about 1.36 kilograms per liter (36 percent denser than water) (Krell 1996).

After the honey is deposited into the honey sac, it is further processed by the honeybee by drawing out water and adding enzymes, and enriching it to yield honey.

Raw honey contains some pollen and may contain small particles of wax.

Certified organic honey is honey produced, processed, and packaged in accordance with national regulations, and certified as such by some government body or an independent organic farming certification organization.

Local raw honey is sought after by allergy sufferers as the pollen impurities are thought to lessen the sensitivity to hay fever.

Antioxidants in honey have even been implicated in reducing the damage done to the colon in colitis (Bilsel et al.

After his death in battle, the head of Vlad III ?epe? (of later Dracula fame) was cut off and presented to the Ottoman Sultan, preserved in a jar of honey (Linke).

Topical honey has been used successfully in a comprehensive treatment of diabetic ulcers when the patient cannot use other topical antibiotics (UWM 2007).

In 2005, China, Turkey, and the Unites States were the top producers of natural honey, reports the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).

One researcher says a particular type of honey may be useful in treating MRSA infections (Knox 2004).

Commercial processing, with pooling of honey from numerous sources generally dilutes any toxins (FDA 2007).

Honey may reduce the time it takes for a burn to heal—up to four days sooner in some cases.

Honey has attractive chemical properties for baking, and a distinctive flavor which leads some people to prefer it over sugar and other sweeteners (NHB 2008b).

Honey also contains tiny amounts of several compounds thought to function as antioxidants, including chrysin, pinobanksin, vitamin C, catalase, and pinocembrin (Martos et al.

Wound gels that contain antibacterial honey and have regulatory approval for wound care are now available to help conventional medicine in the battle against drug resistant strains of bacteria MRSA.

History knows examples of honey preservation for decades, and even centuries.

Honey is sometimes sold in a bear-shaped jar or squeeze bottle.

Honey is primarily a saturated mixture of two monosaccharides.

Typical examples of monofloral or varietal honeys are "orange blossom," "sage," "eucalyptus," "tupelo," "manuka," "buckwheat," "sourwood," and "clover."

A major benefit also accrues to the flowering plants, which are pollinated by the honeybees in the process of collecting the nectar.

Different honeys may be blended to yield that manufacturers preferred moisture content (McNulty 2002).

Only a few areas in New Zealand (Coromandel Peninsula, Eastern Bay of Plenty and the Marlborough Sound) frequently produce toxic honey.

Ripe honey, as removed from the hive by the beekeeper, has a long shelf life and will not ferment (NHB 2008b).

The book of Exodus famously describes the Promised Land as a "land flowing with milk and honey" (33:3).

Hydrogen peroxide in honey is activated by dilution.

Bees inside the hive fan their wings, creating a strong draft across the honeycomb, which enhances evaporation of much of the water from the nectar (NHB 2008a).

Raw honey is as it exists in the beehive or as obtained by extraction, settling or straining without adding heat above 120 °F.

Honeybees also release Nasonov pheromones at the entrance to the hive, which enables returning bees to return to the proper hive.

The Old Testament contains many references to honey.

The color, flavor, and composition of honey depends on the flowers that serve as the source of the honey, with popular honeys derived from clover, alfalfa, orange blossoms, buckwheat, and sage, among many others.

A sufficient amount of honey, about one-third, is kept in the hive for the use of the bees.

At the traditional meal for that holiday, apple slices are dipped in honey and eaten to bring a sweet new year.

Ultrafiltered honey is very clear and has a longer shelf life, because it crystallizes more slowly because of the high temperatures breaking down any sugar seed crystals, making it preferred by the supermarket trade.

Pliny the Elder devotes considerable space in his book Naturalis Historia to the bee and honey, and its many uses.

The nectar is ripened into honey through inversion of most of the sucrose into glucose (dextrose) and fructose (levulose) and removal of water, using enzymes and evaporation.

Bender and Bender (2005) places the average composition of honey at 74 percent (69-75 percent) glucose and fructose and 18 percent (12-26 percent) water.

The beekeeper encourages overproduction of honey within the hive so that the excess can be taken without endangering the bees.

Honey contains trace amounts of several vitamins and minerals.

Some may not be filtered, but simply strained, giving a darker, cloudier, unprocessed honey (McNulty 2002).

Wilson (2004) states that humans began hunting for honey at least 10,000 years ago.

Honey gets its sweetness from the monosaccharides fructose and glucose and has approximately the same relative sweetness as granulated sugar (97 percent of the sweetness of sucrose, a disaccharide) (NHB 2008b).

The following are some more specific categories of honey.

An example of natural sealing of the honey with wax by the bees in little separated honey comb cells could be taken for reference.

The small crystals prevent the formation of larger crystals that can occur in unprocessed honey.

According to McNulty (2002), the glucose and fructose component averages to about 76 to 80 percent of the honey, while water is about 17 to 20 percent.

Most microorganisms do not grow in honey because of its low water activity of 0.6 (Prescott et al.

Honey is mainly composed of glucose, fructose, and water, with a small percentage (1 to 2 percent) of sucrose, as well as enzymes, minerals, vitamins, other sugars, and amino acids.

Honey produced from the flowers of rhododendrons, mountain laurels, sheep laurel, and azaleas may cause honey intoxication.

Honey collection by humans is an ancient activity.

On Madhu Purnima, Buddhists remember this act by giving honey to monks.

Honey's remaining carbohydrates include such disaccharides as maltose, kojibiose, turnanose, and other complex carbohydrates.

Germany's Black Forest is a well known source of honeydew-based honeys, as well as some regions in Bulgaria.

Honey has also been used for centuries as a treatment for sore throats and coughs, and according to recent research may in fact be more effective than most common medicines (GS 2007).

Honey is laid down by bees as a food source.

Whipped honey also is called creamed honey, spun honey, churned honey, candied honey, and honey fondant.

A honeybee (or honey bee) is any member of the highly social bees of the genus Apis, all of which produce and store liquefied sugar ("honey") to some degree.

Instead of taking nectar, bees can take honeydew, the sweet secretions of aphids or other plant sap-sucking insects.

The worker bees raise larvae and collect the nectar that will become honey in the hive.

Antibacterial properties of honey are the result of the low water activity causing osmosis, high acidity (WHRU 2006), and hydrogen peroxide effect (Wahdan 1998).

Honey appears to be effective in killing drug-resistant biofilms, which are implicated in chronic rhinosinusitis (AAO 2008).

Honey plays an important role in the festival of Madhu Purnima, celebrated by Buddhists in India and Bangladesh.

Honey used to be preserved in ceramic and wooden containers in ancient times, although it can absorb the smell of the wood.

Good beekeeping management requires the removal of honeydew prior to winter in colder areas.

Honey is also one of the gourmet products of the French island of Corsica.

The study of pollens and spores in raw honey (melissopalynology) can determine floral sources of honey (Bryant 2001).

Infants, however, can contract botulism from honey (NHB 2008b).

Antioxidants in honey have even been implicated in reducing the damage done to the colon in colitis (Bilsel et al.

The honey is then flash heated, filtered, and flash cooled (all within about seven seconds).

The story goes that while he was there, a monkey brought him honey to eat.

Honey gets its sweetness from the monosaccharides fructose and glucose and has approximately the same relative sweetness as granulated sugar (97 percent of the sweetness of sucrose, a disaccharide) (NHB 2008b).

To produce one pound (0.454 kilograms) of honey requires four pounds (1.8 kilograms) of nectar, which is collected from two million flowers.