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| Latin: |
Mel |
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| Origin: |
Honey is the sweet, sticky liquid food, made from plant nectar (sucrose) by the bee Apis cerana Fabr., of the family Apidae. It is dark golden in color, produced in the honey sacs of various bees from the nectar of flowers. Honey can be found throughout the world.
The source of the nectar determines the color, flavor, and texture of honey. Alfalfa and clover honey are the most common types, but blackberry, heather, and acacia honeys are also popular. Some of the most commercially desirable honeys are produced by the domestic honeybee. The nectar is ripened into honey by inversion of the major portion of its sucrose sugar into the sugars levulose (fructose) and dextrose (glucose) and by the removal of excess moisture.
Honey is stored in the beehive or nest in a honeycomb, a double layer of uniform hexagonal cells constructed of beeswax (secreted by the worker bees) and propolis (a plant resin collected by the workers). Honeycomb is used in winter as food for the larvae and other members of the colony. It is commonly sold by beekeepers as a delicacy, or the wax may be extracted for various purposes.
One of the most easily assimilated foods, honey is widely used in baked goods, candies, prepared fruits, cereals, and medicines.
Honey was almost the only source of sugar available to the ancients and was valued for its medicinal benefits. It was used to make mead, a fermented beverage, and was mixed with wine and other alcoholic drinks. In Egypt it was employed as an embalming material. In India and other Asian countries it was used to preserve fruit and make cakes, sweetmeats, and other foods. Honey is mentioned in the Bible and in the Koran.
Honey is collected all year round except winter. It is sold in liquid or crystallized form, and is available raw or pasteurized. Commercial honey is heated to 65.5 to 71¢X C to prevent crystallization and yeast formation. "Organic" or "raw" honey has not been heat-treated. When doing so, honey is decocted on slow fire, filtered and cleared of impurities and foam for use.
See also Herbs, Tonics for Deficiency Syndromes, Herbs for Invigorating Qi, Honey; and Food, Flavorings, Roayl Jelly. |
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| Properties: |
| Sweet in flavor, mild in nature, it is related to the lung, spleen and large intestine channels. |
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| Functions: |
Nourishes the vital energy, benefits digestion, regulates the spleen-stomach function, strengthens all the internal viscerae, detoxifys, moistens the intestines, lowers blood pressure, prevents arteriosclerosis (various disorders of arteries), heals wounds.
Honey has high nutritional value. It has mild antiseptic properties and has been used in the treatment of burns and lacerations. |
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| Applications: |
1. For stomach pain due to deficiency of the middle:
Honey is sweet in flavor, mild in nature, has the functions of nourishing the vital energy and regulating the spleen-stomach. It could relief worries and stop pain. Often concoct with white peony and liquorice as complements.
2. For dry and chronic coughing, dry mouth, hot soles and palms, constipation, due to yin and lung deficiencies:
Honey moistens and supplements deficiency, stops coughs and lubricates intestines. It is good for treating dry coughs and hemoptysis due to deficiencies of the lung and yin, often prepared with ginseng and rehmannia root together.
Honey is also good for constipation, particularly for elderly, children, those who are weak or after illness and are inappropriate to take herbs for catharsis. In the old days, many who took opium had constipation as well. They often drank bee honey. Drink 30-60 g of honey mixed with water;
or prepare 20 g black sesame and 30 g bee honey. Fry sesame and then pound it to paste. Swallow the paste and honey with warm boiled water twice daily;
or dig out the nucleus of a large pear, fill in the cavity with 20 g bee honey. Steam and consume, twice daily for several days.
3. For treating toxic drugs like aconite root:
Cook bee honey before putting in aconite root would relieve its toxicity.
4. For insomnia, dreamful, discomposed, etc., due to nervous debility:
30 g honey, 15 g fried wild jujuba seed, cook in soup and drink. Add 9 g magnolia vine fruit would improve memory.
Or 8 g magnolia vine fruit, 8 g oriental arborvitae seed, 8 g tuckahoe (poria), cook and take only the soup and mix with 20 g honey. Take once daily before sleep.
5. For brief and painful urination, a malady of evil heat in the summer:
Add 2 teaspoons of honey to 6 shares of talc, 1 share of liquorice with warm water and drink the juice. It is quite effective.
6. For high blood pressure, constipation and stomach pain:
Mix 20 g of honey with warm water and drink it before meal. Drink the juice every day consistently.
7. For heart diseases, coronal atherosclerosis and liver diseases:
Decoct 10 g fleece flower root, 10 g red sage root with water, mix the soup with 10 g honey. Drink once a day.
8. For treatment of burns:
Apply honey topically on the burned spot.
9. For anemia in children:
Consume honey often could rectify anemia in children.
10. For indigestion:
Prepare 30 g Chinese yam and 9 g inner membrane of chicken gizzard. Decoct the two ingredients for 20 minutes. Obtain the solution to which 15 g honey is added and serve, once daily.
11. For peptic ulcer:
Decoct 9 g licorice, 6 g tangerine peel in 150 ml water for 15 minutes. Discard the residue and pour into 50 g honey and drink, 3 times daily. This can be applied for a considerably long period.
12. For asthmatic cough:
Prepare 30 g fresh ginger juice, 30 g almond. Use some lard to boil the almond. Pound the almond as paste to which ginger juice, honey and sugar, each 15 g, are added. Prepare as bolus in the size of an apricot stone. Eat 6-7 times daily. |
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| Dosage and Administration: |
30-60 g.
Taken following infusion with hot boiled water, or used in pill, powder of soft extract.
Honey is sold in liquid or crystallized form, and is available raw or pasteurized. Commercial honey is heated to 65.5 to 71¢X C to prevent crystallization and yeast formation. "Organic" or "raw" honey has not been heat-treated.
The first thing to consider when using honey to cook with is that it is judged to be twice as sweet as sugar. Therefore, to get the same sweetness as sugar, you use one half as much as you would of sugar.
Also, honey is about 18 percent water. If you round that off to 20 percent you can easily figure that about 1/5th of the honey you add to your recipe is water. Therefore, you cut back on the moisture in your recipe by 20 percent.
When used externally, honey can treat local hot scald, and heal wounds. |
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| Cautions on Use: |
Honey should be avoided by those who have the symptoms of accumulation of phlegm-dampness in the body, abdominal distention and lingering diarrhea.
Honey may contain Clostridium botulinum spores, the bacterium that causes botulism (an acute paralytic disease caused by botulin especially in food). Heat treatment is not sufficient to destroy Clostridium botulinum spores, but the high sugar content of the honey prevents the spores from germinating, thus preventing the risk of deadly botulism. Normal adults are not at risk of botulism from eating honey; however, the gastrointestinal tracts of young infants (under one year of age) may promote spore germination. For this reason, infants under one year of age should not consume honey in any form. |
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| Reference Materials: |
Materia Medica of Shen Nong (ca 50 B.C.): "Being able to pacify the deficiencies of the five internal organs, (honey) benefits the vital energy and supplements the internal organs; it also relieves pain, detoxifies, treats numerous illnesse and counterpoises hundreds of herbs."
Li Shizhen (1518-1593), Materia Medica (1578): "There are five medicated functions of honey: dispersing heat, supplementing the internal organs, detoxifying, moistening dryness, and relieving pain. When it is fresh, it is cool in nature; thereby it can clear heat. When it is cooked, it is warm in nature; thereby it can supplement the internal organs. It is sweet and mild; thereby it can detoxify. It is also supple and moist; thereby it can dampen dryness. It is languid and slows urgency; thereby it can relieve pain in the heart, the stomach, muscles, ulcers and wounds. It is mild and gentle; thereby it can counterpoise hundreds of herbs like licorice."
Huang Gongxiu, Probes on Materia Medica (ca 1736-1796): "When honey is fresh, it is cool in nature and clears venting. When it is cooked, it is warm in nature and supplements the internal organs. Its flavor is the purest. Whoever feels deficiency in the internal organs, dry and unresolved, uncomfortable and unbalanced; with sudden pain in the heart or the stomach, have coughs and diarrhea, feels dizzying and looks withered, can all use honey to remedy the
conditions." |
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| Modern Researches: |
Honey is composed mainly of a variety of sugars and water. There are also enzymes present. The contents of honey are very complicated. It contains about 18 percent water, is water soluble, and apart from fructose, glucose, sucrose and maltose, there is dextrin, magnesium, calcium, potassium, sodium, phosphorus, iron, manganese, copper, protein, citric acid, malic acid, lactic acid, formic acid, oxidase, transformase, vitamins A, B1, B2, B6, C, D, E and K, wax, pigments, natural flavoring and traces of pollen. About 40 percent of the sugar in honey is fructose.
Wound Healing
The use of honey as a wound dressing material, an ancient remedy that has been rediscovered, is becoming of increasing interest as more reports of its effectiveness are published. The clinical observations recorded are that infection is rapidly cleared, inflammation, swelling and pain are quickly reduced, odor is reduced, sloughing of necrotic tissue is induced, granulation and epithelialisation are hastened, and healing occurs rapidly with minimal scarring.
The antimicrobial properties of honey prevent microbial growth in the moist healing environment created. Unlike other topical antiseptics, honey causes no tissue damage: in animal studies it has been demonstrated histologically that it actually promotes the healing process. It has a direct nutrient effect as well as drawing lymph out to the cells by osmosis.
The stimulation of healing may also be due to the acidity of honey. The osmosis creates a solution of honey in contact with the wound surface which prevents the dressing sticking, so there is no pain or tissue damage when dressings are changed. There is much anecdotal evidence to support its use, and randomised controlled clinical trials that have shown that honey is more effective than silver sulfadiazine and polyurethane film dressings for the treatment of burns.
A study has accounted positive findings on honey in wound care from 17 randomized controlled trials involving a total of 1965 participants, another 5 clinical trials of other forms involving 97 participants, as well as 16 other trials on a total of 533 wounds on experimental animals (see P.C. Molan, "The Evidence Supporting the Use of Honey as a Wound Dressing," The International Journal of Lower Extremity Wounds Vol. 5, No. 1 ¡eMarch 2006¡f, pp. 40-54).
Antibiotic
As an antimicrobial agent honey may have the potential for treating a variety of ailments. The antibiotic properties of honey changes according to its concentration. Diluted honey demonstrated greater bacteriostatic activity, while undiluted honey exhibited greater bactericidal activity. Present research has indicated the antibacterial properties of honey are the result of the low water activity causing osmosis, hydrogen peroxide effect, and high acidity (see "Honey as an Antimicrobial Agent" Waikato Honey Research Unit, Department of Biological Sciences, The University of Waikato ¡eNovember 16, 2006¡f).
Cancer Prevention and Anti-Tumor
Phytonutrients found in honey, including caffeic acid, methyl caffeate, phenylethyl caffeate and phenylethyl dimethylcaffeate, have been shown to possess cancer-preventing and anti-tumor properties (see, for example, Chia Chiao, Adelaide M. Carothers, Dezider Grunberger, Gregory Solomon, Gloria A. Preston and J. Carl Barrett, "Apoptosis and Altered Redox State Induced by Caffeic Acid Phenethyl Ester (CAPE) in Transformed Rat Fibroblast Cells," Cancer Research Vol. 55, Issue 16 ¡eAugust 15, 1995¡f, pp. 3,576-3,583; and Nada Orsolic, Anica Horvat Knezevic, Lidija Sver, Svjetlana Terzic, and Ivan Basic, "Immunomodulatory and Antimetastatic Action of Propolis and Related Polyphenolic Compounds," Journal of Ethnopharmacology Vol. 94, Issues 2-3 ¡eOctober 2004¡f, pp. 307-315).
Effects on Diabetics
The main practical difference in behavior between that of sucrose and the mixed sugars in honey is the manner in which the body absorbs them.
Sucrose is absorbed via osmosis. This means that it simply enters the bloodstream, penetrating directly through membrances, when it is being digested. The implication is that large amounts of sugar can rapidly enter the system. This rapid entry can cause an over-reaction of insulin production by the pancreas, resulting in the quick burning of the sugar in the system. A crash back to lower levels of sugar (caused by the overstimulation of insulin production/rapid digestion of sugar) may occur.
The mixed sugars contained in honey are absorbed by a process known as "active transport." While the term "active" may seem to denote that this should occur quickly, the opposite is true. Since the transport of the sugars through membranes and into the bloodstream is accomplished by an actual carrying agent (a chemical that binds the sugar), the speed with which it is absorbed is regulated by the availability of the transport agent. So mixed sugars move into the bloodstream at a slower rate and are, therefore, less likely to cause an overstimulation of insulin production.
Add to this the fact that honey is twice as sweet as sugar, you can use half as much in a given recipe, and you can see that diabetics are far less likely to shock themselves with honey as a sweetening agent than sugar (see P. Shambaugh, V. Worthington, and J.H. Herbert, "Differential Effects of Honey, Sucrose and Fructose on Blood Sugar Levels," Journal of Manipulative and Physiological Therapeutics Vol 13, No. 6 ¡eJuly-August 1990¡f, pp. 322-325).
A study has shown that honey compared with dextrose and sucrose caused lower elevation of plasma glucose level in diabetics (see Noori S. Al-Waili, "Natural Honey Lowers Plasma Glucose, C-Reactive Protein, Homocysteine, and Blood Lipids in Healthy, Diabetic, and Hyperlipidemic Subjects: Comparison with Dextrose and Sucrose," Journal of Medicinal Food Vol. 7, No. 1 ¡eApril 2004¡f, pp. 100-107).
Effects on Gastroenteritis
Honey shortens the duration of bacterial diarrhoea, does not prolong the duration of non-bacterial diarrhoea, and may safely be used as a substitute for glucose in oral rehydration solutions (see I.E. Haffejee and A. Moosa, "Honey in the Treatment of Infantile Gastroenteritis," British Medical Journal Vol. 290, No. 6485 ¡eJune 22, 1985¡f, pp. 1,866-1,867).
Effects on Cardiovascular System
Consumption of added sugars has been linked to chronic cardiac diseases such as atherosclerosis. Recent research has suggested that relative to sugar, honey does not produce similar adverse responses, as honey is found to reduce cholesterol and blood lipids (see Alia Altamimi, Yumi Petrisko, Mee Young Hong, Lauren Rezende and Mark Kern, "Responses of blood lipids to consumption of honey versus sucrose in adult men and women," The FASEB Journal Vol. 22 ¡eApril 2008¡f, pp. 449-458).
Effects on Immunity
Propolis was found to induce significant non-specific protection against infections caused by Gram-negative pathogens (see V. Dimov, N. Ivanovska, V. Bankova, and S. Popov, "Immunomodulatory action of propolis: IV. Prophylactic activity against Gram-negative infections and adjuvant effect of the water-soluble derivative," Vaccine Vol 10, No. 12 ¡e1992¡f, pp. 817-823; and that propolis acts on the body's non-specific immunity by macrophage activation (see R.O. Orsi, S.R.C. Funari, A.M.V.C. Soares, S.A. Calvi, S.L. Oliveira, J.M. Sforcin, and V. Bankova, "Immunomodulatory action of propolis on macrophage activation," Journal of Venomous Animals and Toxins Vol. 6, No.2 ¡e2000¡f, pp. 205-219). |
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