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Bee
Facts |
West
Central Florida Beekeeper Co-op |
Benefits
and Facts about "Pure" Honey
| Chemical
Composition of Honey
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Bee
Facts
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Bees
must consume about 17 - 20 pounds of honey to produce each pound
of beeswax.
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Honey has been used for millennia as a dressing for wounds, since
microbes cannot live in it. Honey also produces hydrogen peroxide.
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Bees must withdraw nectar from 2,000,000 flowers in order to make
one pound of honey, and they fly over 55,000 miles in order to accomplish
this.
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A sample spoon is approximately 1/12th a teaspoon and is the amount
of honey one bee will produce in it's lifetime.
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West
Central Florida Beekeeper Co-op
The
deregulation on imported honey is allowing honey from China, Argentina
and other locations throughout the world to enter the United States
without meeting previously held standards. In 2003 the standard
testing of imported honey stopped and has allowed foreign countries
to bring their honey to the US consumer. This imported honey, which
is not held to any standard, has dropped the wholesale price of
honey to a level that threatens the Central Florida Beekeepersı
future existence.
The National Honey Board began independent testing
of imported honey from packers and importers. (this is where the
honey on your grocery store shelf comes from). The lab tests were
done to determined whether the samples were "pure honey" as stated
on labels or suspect of being an altered sweetening product. In
the first month of testing, 25% of the honey sampled were found
to be suspected of being altered with sweeter (corn syrup) rather
than pure honey. The samples came from China, Turkey and other unknown
sources.
It is the hope of the West Central
Florida Beekeeper Co-op to sell the beekeepersı product direct to
the consumer and by pass the brokeragesı discounted prices, in order
to increase their profit margins and provide a healthier product
for the Florida consumer. Consumers that become aware of the difference,
between imported honey and "local" pure honey choose the local pure
honey which is healthier and is a much higher quality product. Edenıs
Nectar is pure honey straight from the hive, and from right
here in Central Florida, not pasteurized, and no hormones added
as in imported honey.
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Benefits
and Facts about "Pure" Honey....
Nectar
itself is sweet, viscous secretion from the nectary's in plant
blossoms, stems, and leaves. Mainly a watery solution of the sugars
fructose, glucose, and sucrose, it also contains traces of proteins,
salts, acids, and essential oils. The sugar content varies from
3 to 80%, depending upon such factors as flower species and soil
and air conditions. Honeybees gather nectar mainly from the blossoms,
and rarely gather nectars having less that 15% sugar content.
Honeybees also gather pollen (which they do not eat themselves
but feed to their larvae) in special 'pollen baskets' on their
rear legs. In collecting pollen, they aid fertilization of the
flower species that they collect from. The economic importance
of bees is based at least as much on their role as pollinators
as on honey production. Citrus growers in Florida experience as
much as a 50% increase in crop yield, when bees are placed in
their groves during the citrus blossom season.
Honey
is water soluble, may granulate between 10 and 18 C, and is slightly
acidic (pH 3.4-6.1). The sugars make honey hygroscopic (moisture
absorbing) and viscous. Honey was almost the only source of sugar
available to people in ancient times, 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
also employed as an embalming material.
Honey
is a powerful antiseptic and antimicrobial agent. This is due
to the high sugar concentration plus other factors including low
pH, and the presence of hydrogen peroxide, flavonoids, phenolics
and terpenes. Honey has been used medicinally since ancient times
(it is mentioned in Egyptian documents), and was still used as
recently as World War One. Medicinal uses include aiding in the
healing of wounds and burns. By keeping a wound clean, moist,
and free from bacteria and the damaging effects of oxygen, the
wound can heal much more quickly. The healing properties of honey
were demonstrated in a study comparing honey treatment to that
of silver sulfadiazine, the standard treatment for burn victims.
The results show that honey treatments result in a much greater
sterility of the wounds, a faster rate of healing, and a faster
onset of healing. These experiments not only showed that honey
is superior to standard treatments, but also better than artificial
honey made from sugars (corn syrup), because it omits the glucose
oxidase, hydrogen peroxide, flavonoids, and other minor components
of pure honey.
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Some of the apiary
operations contributing to
Eden's Nectar
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Chemical
Composition of Honey
Carbohydrates
Unsurprisingly, these comprise the major portion of honey - about
82%. The carbohydrates present are the monosaccharides fructose
(38.2%) and glucose (31%); and disaccharides (~9%) sucrose, maltose,
isomaltose, maltulose, turanose and kojibiose. There are also
some oligosaccharides present (4.2%), including erlose, theanderose
and panose, formed from incomplete breakdown of the higher saccharides
present in nectar and honeydew.
Proteins
and Amino Acids
Honey contains a number of enzymes, including invertase, which
converts sucrose to glucose and fructose; amylase, which breaks
starch down into smaller units; glucose oxidase, which converts
glucose to gluconolactone, which in turn yields gluconic acid
and hydrogen peroxide; catalase, which breaks down the peroxide
formed by glucose oxidase to water and oxygen; and acid phosphorylase,
which removes inorganic phosphate from organic phosphates. Honey
also contains eighteen free amino acids, of which the most abundant
is proline.
Vitamins,
Minerals and Antioxidants
Honey contains trace amounts of the B vitamins riboflavin, niacin,
folic acid, pantothenic acid and vitamin B6. It also contains
ascorbic acid (vitamin C), and the minerals calcium, iron, zinc,
potassium, phosphorous, magnesium, selenium, chromium and manganese.
The main group of antioxidants in honey are the flavonoids, of
which one, pinocembrin, is unique to honey and bee propolis. Ascorbic
acid, catalase and selenium are also antioxidants. Generally speaking,
the darker the honey, the greater its antioxidising properties.
Other
compounds
Honey also contains organic acids such as acetic, butanoic, formic,
citric, succinic, lactic, malic, pyroglutamic and gluconic acids,
and a number of aromatic acids. The main acid present is gluconic
acid, formed in the breakdown of glucose by glucose oxidase.
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"Making
Good Health...Sweet"
1904 Curry Road
Lutz, Florida 33549
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