Honey
Honey is a natural product derived from the digestive conversion of flower nectar to simple sugars by the common honey bee. Honey is the sweet material which is produced by bees who pick-up sweet juices, enrich them by materials from their own bodies, change them in their bodies, store them in honeycombs and allow them to ripen in the honeycombs. Natural honey is comprised of multiple nutrients including carbohydrates, proteins, vitamins and minerals. Honey is comprised of approximately 38.5% fructose and 31.0% glucose. When ingested as a food, the human body metabolizes fructose to produce energy, carbon dioxide, and water independent of the pancreatic hormone, insulin. Glucose in honey is metabolized in a similar manner, however, the metabolism of glucose requires insulin. In its natural form, honey is a viscous, sticky, adhesive fluid which can be slowly poured and/or spread onto a surface and which continues to flow after it has been applied to a surface. Honey is predominantly used for direct human consumption and additionally, for the production of pastry, such as, gingerbread, and of sweets and alcoholic beverages. The importance of honey as a food stuff, savory snack and a medicine is primarily based on its content of easily absorbable carbohydrates, aromatic substances which stimulate the appetite, and mineral components, in which, calcium, magnesium, iron, manganese, phosphorous, silicon, copper and nickel are present in almost all types of honey. Honey differs widely in its chemical composition depending on the plant source and on the bee which converts the nectar to honey. Depending on their ingredients, have different properties as regards their application in the medical field. The main component of honey is invert sugar, further sugars are cane sugar, maltose, and, depending on the plant species visited, more rarely occurring sugars originating from the latter. Besides, sugar, honey contains further enzymes, such as invertase, diastases, catalase, amylase, phosphatase, glucose oxidase, which, with the cooperation of the oxygen of air, convert dextrose into gluconic acid and hydrogen peroxide. The latter provides oxygen in an extremely reactive form which in turn is an excellent germ killer and preservative. One of the most important components of honey is bee pollen. Honey also contains organic acids (malic acid, succinic acid, gluconic acid, acidic acid, formic acid) and the inorganic acids (phosphoric acid and hydrochloric acid). Honey furthermore contains mineral substances in a portion of up to 3%, among them Fe, Cu, P, S, K, Na, Mg, Ca, Si, Mn, Cl, Zn and, in small amounts, also vitamins (B1, B2, B6, pantothenic acid, nicotinic acid, H, folic acid and little vitamin C) and, in very small amounts, nearly all the amino acids. Furthermore, hormones, acetyl choline, which is involved in the conduction of nerve impulses, inhibines (bactericides) and vegetable dyes, such as flavones or carotines, and aromatic substances (alcohols, aldehydes, ketones and essential oils) have been found. In addition to their food value, which can be different depending on the product but which however is always very high, honey products are endowed with additional health-promoting, sickness preventing, and in short biological properties. In medicine, honey serves as a strengthening substance for convalescents because of its high nutritional value. In slowly healing wounds, honey acts as an anti-inflammatory agent. Also, it is used in bronchial catarrh. Of special importance from a medical viewpoint is the presence in honey of acetylcholine, a material which, as a cholinergic factor, acts to lower the blood pressure, and has a stimulating effect on stomach and bowel activities. Honey has been shown to have considerable wound and ulcer healing capacity and strong antimicrobial activity. The use of honey in treating wounds have been long know. Honey dressings have roven superior in the treatment of superficial wounds and burns, with patients experiencing increased wound sterilization, earlier healing, more pain relief and less irritation without allergies and other side effects often experienced during conventional healing processes. Honey also appears to promote rapid wound debridement, replacement of sloughs with granulation tissue and rapid epithelialization and absorption of oedema from around the margins. Honey exhibits pronounced antimicrobial activity against most pathogenic bacteria and fungi regardless of their susceptibility or resistance to different antibiotics. Honey has revealed moderate antitumor and pronounced metastatic effects when tested in rats; the antitumor activity of 5-fluorouracil and cyclophosphamide is potentiated by honey.
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