Honey

HONEY, a sugary product produced by the working bee (Apis mellifera L.) from the nectar of nectariferous plants. In producing honey, the bee may use, in addition to nectar, honeydew that appears on the leaves and stems of some of the indicated plants on hot days, cane sugar, molasses, and other sugary substances. Honey is deposited by the bee in wax cells-combs, from which it is obtained by destroying the combs and allowing the honey to slowly drip into a container placed underneath; to speed up the process, centrifuging, pressing, or melting is used. The highest grade is considered to be honey that flows naturally (raw honey), while the lowest is melted honey, obtained by heating the combs followed by pressing. Good fresh honey has the appearance of a thick and viscous transparent liquid, very sweet in taste and with a pleasant aroma. The taste, odor, and color of honey vary depending on the genus and species of plants from which the bees collect nectar. In the USSR, honey from linden trees and from white acacia is especially highly valued for its taste and aroma; less valued is floral and forest honey, and even less so is buckwheat and conifer honey. Among foreign varieties, Narbonne honey (France), collected from flowers of the Labiatae family, Greek honey from Attica, and Maltese honey, collected from rose bushes, are distinguished by their strong and pleasant aroma; honey from the island of Cuba has a lemon scent. Honey collected by bees from flowers of azalea, aconite, and andromeda has poisonous properties. The color of honey varies from pale yellow, almost white, to dark yellow, brown. Light varieties of honey include linden, clover, alfalfa, fireweed, and others, while dark varieties include buckwheat, cornflower, heather, and others. Some varieties of honey have a green or almost black color, for example, the very tasty and aromatic honey brought from the Balearic Islands. With prolonged storage in a cool place, honey "granulates"-it gradually becomes cloudy, thickens, and finally turns into a dense mass due to the crystallization of grape sugar and partly cane sugar from it. This crystallization is called "granulation" of honey. Fructose, found in honey, does not crystallize, and varieties of honey very rich in fructose rarely granulate, i.e., harden. Poor varieties of honey, containing a lot of water and foreign impurities, when stored in a warm place, easily undergo fermentation and oxidation, acquiring an unpleasant sour odor and taste. The specific gravity of honey (according to Schmidt) ranges from 1.415-1.440. E. Zarin for Russian honey, diluted with twice the amount of water by weight, gives a specific gravity of 1.111-1.121. Honey consists mainly of inverted sugar, i.e., dextrose and levulose (70-80%), sucrose, i.e., cane sugar (about 1-2%), and water (15-20%). In addition, honey contains 4-5% of various non-sugar substances: dextrin, gum, nitrogen-containing substances, free acids (formic, malic, lactic), mineral salts (mainly phosphates), traces of tannins, small amounts of wax and plant pollen, and various enzymes (invertase or invertin, diastase, catalase, reductase, peptonizing substances). The chemical composition of honey depends to a large extent on the plants from which it was collected. Honey from linden, poplar, aspen, oak, and especially from mint contains relatively more dextrins; honey from alfalfa, peas, apple and raspberry contains little dextrin. Buckwheat honey is very poor in sucrose. Honey from hops is rich in tannins. When bees are fed a solution of cane sugar, honey contains a large amount of sucrose, sometimes up to 20%. Honey is often subjected to various adulterations, for example, molasses, glucose, cane sugar, dextrin, gelatin, saccharin are added to it. In coarse falsification, impurities of flour, clay, chalk, and even sand and sawdust are found in it. Sometimes artificial honey, completely containing no natural product and prepared only from a mixture of glucose and cane sugar with the addition of dextrin, flour, acids, coloring and flavoring substances, is found for sale. For natural floral honey, Khlopin gives the following standards: water not more than 22%, cane sugar not more than 8%, ash not less than 0.1%, dry residue minus sugar substances not less than 1.5%. Insufficient ash content and dry residue (minus sugar substances) indicate the addition of foreign sugar substances to honey, for example, starch molasses and others. The examination of honey for the purpose of detecting its falsification is not always an easy task and requires the analyst to be very experienced. Of the simplest methods for determining the quality of honey, the following can be mentioned. The specific gravity of natural honey, diluted with 2 parts (by weight) of water, should not be less than 1.111 at 15°. If the specific gravity is less, then water has been added to the honey. The addition of starch molasses or glucose to honey can be detected by the Fiehe reaction: to 10 cm³ of a honey solution in water (1:3), a little tannin is added and heated to precipitate protein substances; after 12 hours it is filtered. Take 2 cm³ of this filtrate, add 2 drops of strong HCl with specific gravity 1.19 and 20 cm³ of 95% alcohol. The appearance of turbidity indicates the addition of potato molasses or glucose to honey. To detect the addition of beet molasses, the Beckmann reaction is used: to 5 cm³ of a 10% solution of honey in water, 2.5 cm³ of lead acetate and 22.5 cm³ of methyl alcohol are added. A copious yellowish-white precipitate indicates the addition of beet molasses; a solution of natural honey gives only slight turbidity. The addition of flour and starch is detected by adding a weak solution of iodine to honey; adulterated honey turns blue from iodine. The nutritional value of honey consists mainly in the fact that it is a product that replaces sugar both in taste and in nutritional value. Honey is used in the preparation of many confectionery products, for example, candies, jams, gingerbread. Through alcoholic fermentation, strong mead wines and weak alcoholic beverages are obtained from honey. Of strong mead wines, old Polish and Lithuanian mead have gained considerable fame. Among weak alcoholic honey beverages, the most widespread is the drink known as "med", which belongs in taste properties to the category of refreshing lemonades. A good weak alcoholic honey drink should be transparent, have a sweet taste, a honey aroma, and contain a lot of CO₂. By adding berry and fruit juice, a honey drink of different taste and aroma is obtained, for example, cherry, raspberry, apple, etc.

N. Ignatov. Medical honey (Mel). The use of honey as a medicinal remedy dates back to ancient times; ancient Egyptians (Ebers papyrus, 16th century B.C.) believed that honey promotes wound healing; ancient Jews and Greeks used honey as medicine and delicacy; in the famous retreat of 10,000 Greeks (Xenophon's Anabasis), there is mention of the delirium of warriors who ate poisonous honey, which was possibly collected by bees from rhododendrons or azaleas. In medicine, the best commercial grade of honey, white (Mel album, s. virginicum) or yellowish (Mel flavum), is used. The medical use of honey (Mel depuratum) is due to the irritating effect on tissues of the large amount of sugar contained in honey, and the irritating influence of the organic acids present in honey. Honey has been used since ancient times as a mild laxative, for which it is given internally in doses of 50-100 g in its pure form or mixed with water in the form of a drink or as a constituent for laxative porridges taken internally, or honey is used in doses of 10-20 g with water in the form of enemas. Daily moderate consumption of honey in food usually has a regulating effect on bowel functions. Externally, honey is used for gargles, in mixtures, for example, with Infusum Salviae, for washing in cases of scaly skin rashes; for poultices with flour, which is especially often practiced as a folk remedy for the maturation of abscesses (the so-called "softening" remedy). From purified honey, the preparation Mel rosatum (rose honey) is prepared by mixing an alcohol infusion of rose petals (1 part of rose petals to 5 parts of diluted alcohol) with 9 parts of Mel depur. and 1 part of glycerin and then evaporating to 10 parts. Mel rosatum is a transparent, brownish, thickish liquid of pleasant odor and slightly astringent taste; it is used internally instead of Mel depuratum, and externally-for astringent gargles. Mel depuratum is included in: Vienna drink (Ph VII), infusion of senna with sodium sulfate (Ph VII), Oxymel Scillae, Oxymel simplex and other vinegar-honeys of foreign pharmacopoeias, as well as in the composition of laxative suppositories. Preparations of PhVII: 1) Honey (Mel)-yellowish-brown, yellow or yellowish-white, transparent or granular mass of acidic reaction (test see PhVII). 2) Purified honey (Mel depuratum), obtained by dissolving honey in water, treating the solution with purified kaolin at heating and evaporating the filtrate in vacuum to a specific weight of 1.33-1.36. Purified honey has the consistency of thick syrup, has a pleasant odor and sweet taste; it must withstand all tests prescribed for unrefined honey.