A brief note on production of honey, its health benefits & uses

Honey – the most natural food of earth that never gets spoiled even after centuries, if in pure form. For many, it’s a natural medicine while some believe that honey has the magical power to reduce some pounds. Kids love to use them for its sweetness while it’s the best substitute of sugar for adults. So, through this column let me tell you how honey bee prepares honey and also a few benefits of honey. Also read: Honey for Beauty

How is honey produced?

Honey bees are insects that belong to Apis species and nowadays artificial methods are used to produce honey known as Apiculture. Flowers prepare nectar for honey bees and insects so that pollination is done easily. Nectar produced by nectarines is of low sugar content sucrose with complex structures of disaccharides. Since water content is excess it has less permanence and gets damaged easily. Honey bees suck this nectar and mix with their saliva to store in their abdomen. When they reach their hives, they store in different shelves.

Before honey bees store them in hives a chemical reaction happens in the collected nectar. Invertase, enzyme of their saliva converts complex sucrose to glucose and fructose. Thus the highly concentrated sweet honey is vomited by honey bees to wax structure. Then they use their wings as fans to absorb excess water content and create honey that has a pleasant odour as well as taste and quality. 

Now a brief note on a few benefits of honey 

1. Honey can induce digestion and thus helps in digestion process of human body. 

2. Honey is most commonly used for pimple treatment creams as well as facial products.

3. It has magical power to heal wounds as well as burns. Honey is also used to get rid of wound marks of body parts.

4. Honey is used for many religious rituals.

5. It is used for medicines in ayurveda, unani, homeopathy as well as common treatments.

And finally, a few honey talks

1. Chemical composition of honey is 40% fructose, 34% glucose, 17.7% water content, 1.9% sucrose, dextrins and wax 1.5% and minerals 0.18%.

2. Honey is the emperor of sweet products and many believe that it is divine and food of God. It’s told about honey in all holy books related to Hinduism, Christianity and Islam.

3. Before sugarcane cultivation started, honey was used as the common sweet ingredient.

4. 1 tablespoon honey contains 64 calorie energy. At the same time, it can be used as food, medicine and beauty product.

5. To produce honey equivalent to 0.45 kilograms, 550 honey bees should collect nectar from more than 25 lakh flowers.

6. Egyptians address honey as ‘Liquid Gold’.

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