Factors Governing the Benefits of Honey

Factors Governing the Benefits of Honey


There are numerous health benefits of honey; it can be used as an antioxidant, has antimicrobial, antibacterial and antifungal properties, boosts athletic performance, and is a rich source of vitamins and minerals. Milk and honey are used by many due to its skin care benefits. However, the benefits of honey that we get greatly depend on its quality. Honey available in different honey jars are not of same quality and hence do not provide same benefits.

The high dependence of the health benefits of honey and its price on its quality have made it important for both honey manufacturers and consumers understand the various factors that affect the quality of honey. Some of these factors include the type of fowers used, the blending process, storage conditions, temperature of heatng, etc. These factors have been explained in detail below:

• Type of flowers: According to the Honey Research Center at the University of Waikato, New Zealand, there is not enough evidence to draw conclusion on the properties of honey especially the antimicrobial properties based on the type of flowers used for honey production. However, extensive research has been carried out on honeydew honey obtained from the conifer forests in central European mountains and manuka honey obtained from New Zealand. The above mentioned honeydew honey has been found to have high microbial activity while manika honey has been found to have high non-peroxide activity.
• Blending: It is also believed that polyfloral honey (honey obtained from more than one flower) provides more benefits than monofloral honey. Hence many companies sell blended honey. Blended honey offers benefits of variety of honeys and hence is considered to be healthier than non-blended honey.
• Storage: Honey when stored for a long duration becomes dark in color. It loses some of its properties and may also ferment if the water content is high. Hence prolonged storage of honey should be avoided and newly harvested honey should be preferred.
• Heating: Heating honey leads to drastic changes in its chemical composition. As a result, heating to high temperatures reduces the benefits of honey. No wonder many people prefer raw honey or organic honey or raw organic honey. While raw honey by definition signifies less process (and no heating), organic honey is prepared using stringent organic honey production and processing standards, in which heating to high temperatures is not allowed.
• Water content: Honey can also udergo fermentation occasionally. If the water content of honey is high (above 19%), the chances of it getting fermented are high. You can find the water content of honey using a refractometer. Further, freely flowing honey either contains higher water content or has been heated to disturb the natural crystallization process.
• Color of honey: Color of honey is a very useful tool to judge its quality. Light colored honey is more valued than dark colored honey as the former has a delicate flavor. Honey becomes dark upon storage and heating.

Benefits of Organic Honey

Benefits of Organic Honey


Some people have the opinion that all honey available in the market is natural honey obtained from the wild. Others feel that honey production carried out on chemically sprayed farms cannnot get contaminated with the pesticides sprayed on the crops and weeds.

However, the truth is that honey bees may also get affected by the extensive pesticide usage which goes on the chemically treated farms. Moreover, non-organic honey production involves extensive usage of antibiotics for disease control. It should be noted that so far, there is no proof that organic honey is healthier than non-organic honey.

Then why should one eat organic honey? People prefer to be cautious. Most of our decisions are based on our beliefs and conscience. Since organic honey production involves following stringent guidelines, people feel secure when they eat organic honey as compared to when they eat non-organic honey.

Given below are some of the ways in which pesticide and antibiotic contamination of honey can take place:

Contamination of Pesticides in Honey
Honey can be contaminated with the pesticides sprayed on crops through one or more of the following ways:

• In some cases, when the plants and weeds containing flowers have been sprayed with pesticides, the honey bees are poisoned with pesticides.
• At times, the pesticide gets sprayed on the honey bees directly.
• In many occasions, honey bees collect nectar and pollen that is contaminated with pesticides.
• When pesticides are sprayed, part of it gets accumulated in water on or near the plants. When honey bees drink this water, they are also contaminated.
• In few occasions, the pesticide gets sprayed on the honey bee hives or gets transported to it from the sprayed plants.

Residues of Antibiotics in Honey
Conventional honey bees are given large doses of antibiotics to help them protect from diseases. Unfortunately, the honey also gets contaminated with these antibiotics. In 2002, samples of Chinese honey were tested for the presence of antibiotics in Europe. Several samples were found to contain traces of antibiotics, which led to a ban on the imports of Chinese honey in Europe. (The ban was later removed in 2004 due to improvements in Chinese veterinary standards and imports of honey from China were resumed.)

What leads to this antibiotics contamination? Unlike organic honey production, conventional honey production does not involve stringent guidelines for the quantity and mode of transmission of antibiotics to the honey bees. As a result, apiculturists have a free hand in using these antibiotics. When farmers use excessive quantities of antibiotics the chance of contamination increases.

What is the problem with residues of antibiotics being found in honey? The antibiotics given to the honey bees are veterinary antibiotics such as chloramphenicol, streptomycin and sulfonamides. Large doses of chloramphenicol administered into the human beings may cause cancer and aplastic anaemia. Similarly, high doses of streptomycin and sulfonamides are harmful to the human body.

Many countries have not banned the usage of these harmful drugs in apiculture. The EU has banned all three while the US has banned chloramphenicol.

Benefits of Honey in Weight Loss

Benefits of Honey in Weight Loss


The benefits of honey can be seen in your weight loss program as well. If you are trying to lose weight, honey can be of great help to you. But before we move on to the benefits of honey in weight loss we should address the concerns people have regarding honey.

Many people ask: Isn't honey a type of sugar? Does it not add any weight? Won't the calories in honey negate your weight loss efforts?

You are right - honey contains sugar. But unlike refined sugar, honey contains vitamins and minerals too. Normally, to digest sugar, the vitamins and minerals stored in body are utilized, rendering the body devoid of these nutrients. These nutrients are essential to dissolve fats and cholesterol. Thus when you eat too much sugar, you tend to increase weight not just because of the calories, but due to lack of vitamins and minerals. On the contrary, honey being a good source of nutrients, helps you in reducing weight.

Honey and warm water: Normally fat remains as an un-used resource in your body adding bulk and weight. It is believed that honey mobilizes this stored fat. When this fat is burnt to provide energy for your daily activities, you see a gradual decrease in your weight and obesity levels. It is suggested that you drink this honey (about one tablespoon daily), with equal amount of warm water.

Honey and lemon juice: Honey can also help in weight loss, when consumed with warm water and lemon juice. Many people drink this formula, first thing in the morning to reduce their weight.

Honey and cinnamon: Another useful recipe is cinnamon powder with honey and warm water. Take one tablespoon of cinnamon power, one tablespoon of honey and one cup of warm water, mix the ingredients properly and drink this mixture empty stomach. It is not clear how this mixture helps in weight loss; however, many people claim to have derived benefits from its regular consumption.

Honey also improves your digestion and helps in weight loss. Hence honey is also consumed after dinner after overeating.

Finally, many people stop eating food to reduce their weight. Beware of such practices. If you don't eat sufficient food (which involves calories, vitamin, minerals, fibers) your immune system will become weak. Your weight loss program should focus on reducing the intake of calories and not stopping the intake of calories. Further, you should also increase the daily expense of calories by regular exercise.

Health Benefits of Honey and Ginger

Health Benefits of Honey and Ginger


The health benefits of honey and ginger in treating respiratory problems are unmatched by any other concoction. Further, honey is an excellent medium for transmitting the benefits of herbs such as ginger to the body.

Both honey and ginger have their individual health benefits and the combination provides additional uses. (Click here for health benefits of honey, factors governing the benefits of honey and health benefits of ginger root.)

The health benefits of honey and ginger spice include the following:

• Respiratory problems: The mixture of honey and ginger is an excellent expectorant and therefore provides instant relief to a person suffering from cough, cold, sore throat, and runny nose.
• Asthma: It is also believed that a mixture of honey and ginger along with black pepper is capable of treating or reducing the effect of asthma.
• Indigestion: Ginger and honey are also available in the form of ginger honey tonic. It is believed that this tonic or syrup is a good digestive aid due to the inherent digestive properties of ginger. Further both ginger and honey have antioxidant properties thereby increasing the immunity of the body. Therefore, consumption of one tea spoonful of ginger and honey tonic is very useful for people who have a weak digestive system.

Therefore, many people, especially in India, always keep both ginger and honey in their house and prepare mixture whenever someone falls ill due to cold or cough.

The best way to consume ginger and honey is to mix one tea spoonful of ginger root juice with one tea spoonful of honey. Ginger honey crystals are also available in the market. The crystallized ginger and honey retain most of the health benefits present in a fresh preparation and are meant for instant preparation of a drink of ginger and honey.

Ginger honey candies are also very popular. If your throat is congested and you are not able to speak properly, you should eat candied ginger and honey as it clears the throat immediately. Ginger honey candies are also useful during traveling. They help in dealing with motion sickness.

Honey can also be added to ginger for improving its taste. Honey acts as sweetener, thereby making ginger more palatable. Further, honey can be added to ginger bread, ginger cookies, ginger ale, ginger beer, carrot ginger soup, ginger punch, ginger biscuits, ginger snap, ginger cake, and various other ginger recipes to enhance the taste of these recipes.

Honey is also often added to ginger root tea or ginger and cinnamon tea. You can replace sugar (if you add any) with honey while preparing the ginger tea and thus make your ginger tea healthier.

Health Benefits of Honey and Milk

Health Benefits of Honey and Milk


The health benefits of honey and milk include skin care and stamina development. This article elaborates the health benefits of milk and honey taken together. For health benefits of honey click here. For health benefits of organic milk click here.

Skin Care: Both honey and milk posses antimicrobial and cleansing properties. These properties are enhanced when the two are taken together. Numerous cleansers are prepared using milk and honey as the mixture gives a glowing skin. One can also enjoy a milk and honey bath, by mixing them in equal quantities. The combination is used in various spas throughout the world.

Stamina: A glass of milk and honey daily in the morning is known to improve the stamina of people. While milk contains proteins, honey contains the necessary carbohydrates required for effective metabolism. Milk and honey provides strength to all including children and old men and women.

Anti Aging: Milk and honey combination acts not only on the skin but also on the entire body by making it agile and youthful. People in many ancient civilizations including Greeks, Romans, Egyptians and Indians drank milk and honey to preserve their youth. Since milk and honey ensure long life, the combination was known as the elixir of life.

MilkAnti Bacterial: Research has shown than milk and honey have higher activity on staphylococcus bacteria than milk or honey taken alone. It is also believed that honey added to warm milk cures constipation, flatulence and intestine disorders. It is also good for treating respiratory disorders such as cold and cough.

The benefits of honey and milk to the human body are so enormous that the phrase “land of milk and honey” meaning “a place which has plenty” is commonly used. Jerusalem is referred to as the land of milk and honey in the Old Testament.

Benefits of Organic Honey Certification

Benefits of Organic Honey Certification


Increasing number of farmers, all over the world, are shifting to organic farming as it provides numerous benefits over conventional farming. Honey bee keepers are also favoring organic honey production as it is considered to have numerous benefits over conventional honey.

The NSW Department of Primary Industries, Australia provides the pros and cons of becoming a certified organic honey bee keeper in the document 'Organic Certified Production with Bees'.

Pros of organic honey production
Some of the advantages of organic honey production to the manufacturer are given below:

• Increased price of honey: Organic honey and organic raw honey both fetch a higher price in the market as compared to conventional honey.
• Increased marketability: It is easier to sell organic honey and raw organic honey as they are considered to have greater health benefits over non-organic honey. Reports of increased usage of antibiotics in Chinese honey have increased awareness about potential ill-effects of non-organic honey among health conscious consumers.
• Qualtiy honey assurance for buyers: Customers are assured of a quality product as the production and handling standards for organic honey are clearly defined by the certifying body. If the honey is not manufactured according to the set guidelines, the organic label is not granted.
• Satisfaction of producing a clean product: Many farmers shift to organic farming due to its benefits to the environment. Same is the case with organic apiculture. Organic honey bee keepers feel content at the end of the day when they do not use chemical pesticides and antibiotics.
• Every organic honey jar can be traced: Certified organic honey involves proper labeling of the product. Every organic honey jar can be traced to the honey bee hive from which the honey in it is obtained.
• Increased management awareness of the enterprise: Many conventional honey bee keepers are not aware of effective techniques to manage their apiaries. Since certified organic honey production involves following stringent guidelines, manufacturers are also educated about efficient management of their enterprise.

Cons of organic honey production
There are some disadvantages of organic honey production. Some of these disadvantages include the following:

• Availability of suitable apiary sites: It is difficult to get suitable apiary sites that favor the organic honey standards in all seasons.
• Limitation on disease management practices: Organic honey does not involve wide usage of antibiotics. Hence disease management is restricted.
• Limitation on feeding management practices: An organic honey bee keeper has to ensure that there is no non-organic farm in the vicinity of his honey bee hives. Further, there are other restrictions on the feeding practices.
• Transition cost and time: A conventional honey bee keeper cannot shift to organic honey production all of a sudden. As in case of organic milk production, there is transition time and cost involved in shifting to organic honey production as well. There is also one year probation period in some countries such as Australia before becoming a certified organic honey manufacturer.
• Other costs: Organic honey production also involves other costs such as cost of joining the certifying body, cost of certification, auditing cost, sampling cost, etc.
• Increased record keeping: Organic honey involves keeping detailed records throughout the manufacturing, processing and retailing processes.

Honey as Antibiotics

Honey as Antibiotics


Honey as the traditional medicine on preventing of a growing prevalence of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. Staphylococcus bacteria that resistant to methicillin and other drug-resistant infections kill or hasten the death of 8,000 British patients per year, while MRSA now kills more people in US than annually AIDS. At the Royal United Hospital in Bath, England, many wounds are now being disinfected with Manuka honey rather than pharmaceutical antibiotics.

Honey has been used in healing for long ago, but now have been develop of new product that associated with honey and bring it into a modern healthcare setting. Honey is known as one of the oldest forms of medicine, and was employed both as food and antibiotic by the ancient Egyptians and more recently, by German doctors during World War I. High of sugar content in honey make this substance almost chemically inert, it make unavailable for bacteria growth, fungi and viruses growth. A naturally occurring enzyme known as glucose oxidase also make honey acidic enough to create a hostile environment for most bacteria.

Honey for antibiotic that is used in Royal United Hospital is not the same as honey that is usually sell in supermarket or minimarket. Honey that is usually use for antibiotic called as Manuka honey, which is produced from manuka plant, a natural honey from certain plant in New Zealand. This honey is then irradiated to kill any trace bacterial spores.

According to the manuka honey product criteria, this honey has proven effective at killing MRSA in scientific trial. Honey already contains a variety of chemicals that can be beneficial to the body, such as antioxidant pinocembrin, which only occur in honey.

Organic Honey Standards

Organic Honey Standards


The standards for organic honey production are much different than those for producing other organic livestock products. Managing honey bees is very difficult and hence the general rules applicable for other livestock cannot be implemented in case of organic honey production.

The National Standard of Canada, Government of Canada has provided standards for organic honey production in their document Organic Production Systems General Principles and Management Standards. The North London Beekeeping Association has also summarized the organic honey standards widely used in the UK in one of its information sheets. The commonly used organic honey production guidelines have been given below (please note that the guidelines and the numbers given below are indicative):

• Location of Organic Apiary: An organic apiary should be placed on a piece of land that is maintained organically. The nectar, honeydew or pollen used by the honey bees should come from organic sources. Normally a honey bee can travel upto 3 km for gathering honey. Hence the chemical farms in the vicinity should be located outside a distance of about 3 km.
• Organic Bee Hives: The bee hives used for organic apiculture should be made of natural timber or metal. Treated timber cannot be used for making the hives. Further non-lead based paints should be used, and if plastics are used they should be covered with bee wax.
• Transition Period: Like organic milk production, there is a transition period involved when a farmer shifts from conventional honey production to organic honey production. This transition period is about 12 months. Non organic wax should be replaced with organic wax during the transition period.
• Origin of Honey Bees: The replaced or introduced honey bees can come from organic as well as non organic apiaries. The apiary where new honey bees have been introduced can be included in organic honey production only after a period of about 60 days, after ensuring that the replacement of bees and management of the apiary has been carried out using organic means.
• Feed for Organic Honey Bees: In organic apiculture, the honey bee hives should not be placed in or near farms where chemical farming is practiced. Also artificial feeding can be carried out; however, only when it is difficult to provide access to organic foraging to the bees. When non organic feed is used, the apiary should be removed from organic honey production, depending on the duration of artificial feeding.
• Queen Honey Bees: The queen honey bees can be replaced whenever required. A healthy queen should be selected for replacement to ensure preventive disease management. Sometimes artificial insemination is permitted. Cutting of wings of the queen honey bee is not permitted.
• Organic Honey Disease Control: Stress should be laid on using preventive methods of disease control such as selecting healthy queen honey bees and replacement bees. Further, antibiotics cannot be used for treating diseases. Whenever antibiotics are used, the apiary should be isolated and kept out of organic honey production for at least a year.
• Organic Honey Extraction: A live brood cannot be used for extracting honey from a brood comb. The surfaces that come in contact with the honey should be made of food-grade material or should be coated with beewax.
• Organic Honey Processing: Organic honey should not be heated above 35 degree Celsius. Gravitational settling and filtration should be used for removing extraneous solids.
• Organic Honey Labeling: Every apiary should be properly managed and records of the apiary should be maintained. One should be able to trace the honey stored in an organic honey jar to the apiary it has been obtained from.

Health Benefits of Honey

Health Benefits of Honey


Natural honey has been used by mankind since the past 2,500 years, all over the world. While the numerous health benefits of honey have made it an important aspect of traditional medicines such as Ayurveda, scientists are also researching the benefits of honey in modern medicine, especially in healing wounds.

Known as Honig in German, Miele in Italian, Shahad in Hindi, Miel in French, Miel in Spanish, Mel in Portuguese, in Russian, Honing in Dutch, and in Greek, there is hardly any region in the world where honey is not cherished.

What makes honey so popular? It is the ease with which it can be consumed. One can eat honey directly, put it on bread like a jam, mix it with juice or any drink instead of sugar, or mix it with warm water, lime juice, cinnamon and other herbs to make a medicine. It is savored by all due to its taste as well as health benefits.

The health benefits of honey include the following:

Sweetener:
Sugar can be substituted with honey in many food and drinks. Honey contains about 69% glucose and fructose enabling it to be used as a sweetener.

Energy Source:
Honey is also used by many as a source of energy as it provides about 64 calories per tablespoon. One tablespoon of sugar will give you about 50 calories. Further the sugars in honey can be easily converted into glucose by even the most sensitive stomachs. Hence it is very easy to digest honey.

Weight Loss:
Though honey has more calories than sugar, honey when consumed with warm water helps in digesting the fat stored in your body. Similarly honey and lemon juice and honey and cinnamon help in reducing weight.

Improving Athletic Performance:
Recent research has shown that honey is an excellent ergogenic aid and helps in boosting the performance of athletes. Honey facilitates in maintaining blood sugar levels, muscle recuperation and glycogen restoration after a workout.

Source of Vitamins and Minerals:
Honey contains a variety of vitamins and minerals. The vitamin and mineral content of honey depends on the type of flowers used for apiculture.

Antibacterial and Antifungal Properties:
Honey has anti-bacterial and anti-fungal properties and hence it can be used as a natural antiseptic.

Antioxidants:
Honey contains nutraceuticals, which are effective in removing free radicals from our body. As a result, our body immunity is improved.

Skin Care with Milk and Honey:
Milk and honey are often served together as both these ingredients help in getting a smooth soothing skin. Hence consuming milk and honey daily in the morning is a common practice in many countries.

Honey in Wound Management
Significant research is being carried out to study the benefits of honey in treating wounds. Nursing Standard provides some of these benefits in the document - The benefits of honey in wound management. These have been given below:

• Honey possesses antimicrobial properties.
• It helps in promoting autolytic debridement.
• It deodorizes malodorous wounds.
• It speeds up the healing process by stimulating wound tissues.
• It helps in initiating the healing process in dormant wounds.
• Honey also helps in promoting moist wound healing.

The healing powers of honey are not hyped. The Waikato Honey Research Unit provides details about the world-wide research that is being carried out on the benefits of honey in medicine. Further, BBC reported in July, 2006 that doctors at the Christie Hospital in Didsbury, Manchester are planning to use honey for faster recovery of cancer patients after surgery. Such research will provide scientific evidence to the so-called beliefs held by honey lovers all over the world and help in propagating benefits of honey to more people.

Now that you know the benefits of honey, how do you eat it? You can eat it raw, add it it in water and different beverages and you can add it in several recipes also.

Bee Killing Honeybees

Bee Killing Honeybees


Beekeepers use herbicides, fungicides and insecticides in around beehives. Because of their live threat that often faces to the bees they have no choice to use this two kind of chemicals from attacking of other insects. Honeybees increasingly suffer from bee diseases and parasites, forcing their keepers to fight using their powerful chemicals, but in modern beekeeping practices put severe stress on honeybees, possibly this cause the bee have weakened resistance to diseases and parasites. The treatment on modern beekeeping such as unnatural feed, migratory beekeeping, artificial insemination, and chemical treatments.

Naturally honeybees just eat of nectars and pollens, these food collect from certain kind of Bloom for certain bees. This natural food will give vital nutrients that optimize the health of these tiny insects. But currently beekeeper commonly feed their honeybees by artificial syrups and patties that form a high fructose corn syrup (HFC). The quality of these artificial syrup will very different with natural food from nectar and pollen and worse again about 85% of all corn grown in U.S. is genetically modified, so what its mean?

The crops product that modify genetically will produce food that resist to insect, but bees are insect too. There are no investigation yet how honeybees will react to this genetically feed. In addition bees also forage for pollen and nectar on GM crops, adding to their exposure. So current honey product will have bad honey quality compare with natural honey that resulted from forest.

Honey In Food and Medicine

Honey In Food and Medicine


There are many benefit of honey, some are for food ingredient like adding on cream ice or on beverage, the others are for medicine purposes. The benefit for honey are vary and have proven by many scientist, honey also belief can add some power to out body, building immune system to prevent from many diseases and can use as medicine.

Honey has power when added to drink such as tea or milk, make fresh of your body while nourishing at the same time. Honey will sweetened drink while helping your body feel completely fulfilled at the same time. Just a teaspoon or two, depending on your sweet needs is what should be added.

Honey has function for children as source of vitamin and mineral beside as a good sweetener for children drink like tea and milk. Honey will balance your body and help you retain more calcium, if you are a mother need regularly drink honey especially when pregnant because your body will need more calcium. Adding honey to a warm liquid is going to cleanse your body if you are constipated, acting as a very mild laxative as your body absorbs what it requires from the honey to be more balanced.

Honey can use to reduce coughs, cure bladder infections and more other function. Some claim that honey can reduce of arthritis pain with frequent honey intake. Honey contains an antibacterial agent that makes it a nice addition to remedies targeted at infections. A glass of warm water featuring honey and some cinnamon can be used to fight bladder infection.

Honey has been linked to reduce cholesterol levels, which can decrease the risk of heart attack and strokes. Honey is a source of antioxidants that strengthen the immunes system and fend off the dangerous free radicals. Honey also can use a topical treatment for sunburn, burns and minor abrasions, It seals off the area from foreign substances, fights infection and many others.

The Uses of Honey

The Uses of Honey


Honey is a natural product that has many advantage for our body. People use honey for many purposes, honey can use as medicine, honey also can use as multivitamin and calorie doping to keep our stamina. Honey is heavy syrup with 12 to 20 percent moisture and 80 to 85 percent sugar. It is a good source of quick energy for the human body. Genuine honey is expensive, because of this many people then make an artificial honey to cheat others.

Because of many benefit of honey, people than use for many purposes, beside for diet, honey also use for skin treatment. Honey bath use by Cleopatra queen, to keep their beauty to attract others. So now many industry produce a soap that contain of honey like on transparent soap or UV whitening soap.

There are many flavors of wild flower honey. The flavors vary from year to year. Not only are the flavors varied but honey also comes in many different forms. Comb, chunk, fine textured, liquid, and even solid honey that is sometimes called granulated are all forms of honey. In the United States, we are most familiar with liquid and fine textured forms. Liquid and fine textured honeys are recommended for baking.

Honey boasts many medical benefits. Honey has aided in bad coughing spells for years. An effective mix for coughing is to peel and finely chop one pound of onions. Add two ounces of honey and ¾ of a pound of brown sugar in two pints of water. Simmer gently over low heat for three hours. When cool, put in an airtight container and take four to six tablespoons a day. As in any illness, it is best to consult a doctor. It is also a mild laxative. People have also boasted that chewing the thin wax capping sliced from the comb of honey once a day for one month before the start of the hay fever season greatly reduces hay fever symptoms. Chewing these capping has also helped sinus sufferers.

Honey and beeswax are used in the beauty industry to soften and heal the skin tissue and help attract moisture to the skin. Most lipsticks are made with a beeswax base. Honey can be used in making effective facials. Mix one or two tablespoons of honey with one-third cup finely ground oatmeal. Oatmeal can be ground in a blender. The amount of honey used depends on your thickness preference. Blend in a teaspoonful of rose water or tap water. Clean face thoroughly. Spread facial mixture evenly over face. Relax for ten minutes to one half hour. Remove with a soft washcloth and warm water. Rinse with cold water or use an astringent. Use this facial once a week for improved softness in the skin. This treatment also works well for oily complexions.

Many Kinds of Honey and Benefit

Many Kinds of Honey and Benefit


Honey savor has been known since ancient Egyptian Era. Even Cleopatra Queen was using to treat the health and beauty. In addition, honey is also used for embalming herb (embalming) to preserve Kings Ancient Egypt Mummy. Japanese tradition is the honey in order to wake up every night to sleep in a fresh and healthy.

One of the honeys unique because honey is containing a antibiotics substance. This is the research results of Peter C Molan (1992), researchers from the Department of Biological Sciences, University of Waikoto, New Zealand. According to Honey has proven contain active antibiotic substances against various attacks pathogenic bacteria cause disease.

In addition, researchers from the Department of Biochemistry, Faculty of Medicine, University of Malaya in Malaysia, Kamaruddin (1997) also mentioned the fact that in the honey can function as anti microbial substances, which can prevent the disease.

Some diseases causes by various pathogenic infections can be prevented and cured with honey drink regularly are: respiratory tract infection on (ISPA), cough, fever, stomach disease injury, alimentary tract infections, skin disease.

Along with the increasing of Science and Technology development, and sometimes often used for crime. Such as forgery honey, by mix a little honey with the original cane sugar or brown sugar and citric acid added to get a sense and enzyme to cause an impression.

In addition there is a false or mistaken opinion about the quality of honey. Some assume that a good honey is cause explosion when the cup open or not surround by ant. Exactly honey has been damaged due to fermented by enzyme and leads occurrence of gas and alcohol that is why ant does not want to close to.

At this time more people known of Arabic honey, or Kalimantan honey and Sumbawa honey of Indonesia. While the quality of honey depends on the original nectar that is sucked by bees. So naming a common known at this time is not only more of the manufactured home, as mentioned above, but from home as Honey of Randu Flower nectar (Ceiba petandra), Flower Honey Coffee (Arabica Coffee), Honey of Klengkeng Flower (Euphoria longana sp), Honey Rambutan Flower (Nephelium lappaceum), Honey of many types of flowers (Flower Mix), Honey of Durian Flower (Durio sp), Honey Flower Coconut (Cocos nucifera), etc.. Each type of honey from various plants features have a unique and different aroma and savor.

Honey Definition

Honey Definition


Honey is the sweet liquid produced by bees from the nectar of flowers. The honey source of the nectar the honey is made from determines its color and flavor. Most of the honey produced in the United States is from clover or alfalfa, which produces light colored and delicately flavored honeys. Other common honey include buck-wheat, which is darker and more sharply flavored, and the pale orange blossom and sage honeys. Much of the commercial product is a blend of several honeys.

All honeys are complex mixtures of the sugars fructose and glucose with water, organic acid and mineral and vitamin traces, as well as some plant pigments. Honey is harvested in in the form of comb honey, which may be cut in squares and sold. More often, the honey is strained out of the comb and bottled as a clear liquid. The cream-colored opaque, creamed honey that has been crystallized.

Because honey has the ability to absorb and retain moisture, it is commonly used in the baking industry to keep baked goods moist and fresh. Its high sugar content and its acidity make it an excellent food preservative, and it has long been used for this purpose, as well as for sweetening and as the basis for Mead, a weak alcoholic drink.

Artificial Honey

Artificial Honey

Although we know that the vendors of fake honey is loose in urban and rural, but it is not unethical if we rebuke them directly to the merchants that sell honey that is not genuine.

Besides, we cannot directly prove that the goods were counterfeit goods, also possible that traders only sell this tour but did not make their own honey.

The trader with no doubt explain that the original honey, and when opened out of gas that characterized the original honey, even though we know that honey with gas out when open means honey is damaged, honey already fermented, and actually indicate of not good quality honey. They also tried to make potential victims be sure to bring a hive of doused with artificial honey was still there a few bees hanging on the hive.

In addition to regular honey they bring, they also bring the royal jelly honey which he says white is much more expensive price because have better benefit, well this is more dangerous, because the white color is more easily made and they possible use of hazardous materials to make the color white.

So, still better to buy honey made of clear factory that the honey packaging explains about the honey composition that is a mixed of original honey with some additional material needed such as vitamin A, vitamin C, vitamin K and so on, because despite how honey still contains the original levels.

Honey The Honey

Honey The Honey


What is a good quality honey? As generally many customer in this world don’t understand what like of good quality honey. Like me also don’t really what like of good quality honey, just believe to honey producer that they will give us a pure honey. Myself often buy a honey directly to honey farmer, because so many producer have mix this honey with many kind of additive.

Pure natural honey are only small quantity can get from the bee nest so many farmer also feel make a financial loss if just sell just a small quantity, so then they mix with some other additive substance, like water, sugar and many others.

Basically good honey quality have an essentially low water content, and will fermented is keep on the container for long time. But by mixing with original honey this mixture really difficult to differ because they are very similar with the original one, may be just chemicals laboratory people can differ that by some of chemical analyzes.

Row honey moisture contain no more than 14 % of water, and usually deemed as more valuable and hence is relatively more costly. Honey containing of up to 20% of water is not recommended for mead making. The honey mixing will no longer have a benefit for our health, we just like drink of sugar concentrates on water.

Bee Diseases

Bee Diseases


We all know that our health always need this honey that source from bee, all many kind of bees. Honey have benefit for human health, this not just advise by doctor that to consume honey to add our stamina, but also advise by God that is write on their Book like Al-Qur’an. Unfortunately this creature also died when the season is not suitable for their conditions, and also ded after a certain period, below is the research result of this bee live.

Last year's survey commissioned by the Apiary Inspectors of America found losses of about 32 percent. The survey included 327 operators who account for 19 percent of the country's approximately 2.44 million commercially managed bee hives. The data is being prepared for submission to a journal.

About 29 percent of the deaths were due to Colony Collapse Disorder, a mysterious disease that causes adult bees to abandon their hives. Beekeepers who saw CCD in their hives were much more likely to have major losses than those who didn't.

As beekeepers travel with their hives this spring to pollinate crops around the country, it's clear the insects are buckling under the weight of new diseases, pesticide drift and old enemies like the parasitic varroa mite, said Dennis vanEngelsdorp, president of the group.

This is the second year the association has measured colony deaths across the country. This means there aren't enough numbers to show a trend, but clearly bees are dying at unsustainable levels and the situation is not improving, said vanEngelsdorp, also a bee expert with the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture.

On Tuesday, Pennsylvania's Agriculture Secretary Dennis Wolff announced that the state would pour an additional $20,400 into research at Pennsylvania State University looking for the causes of CCD. This raises emergency funds dedicated to investigating the disease to $86,000.

The issue also has attracted federal grants and funding from companies that depend on honey bees, including ice-cream maker Haagen-Dazs. Because the berries, fruits and nuts that give about 28 of Haagen-Daazs' varieties flavor depend on honey bees for pollination, the company is donating up to $250,000 to CCD and sustainable pollination research at Penn State and the University of California, Davis.

Royal Jellly

Royal Jellly


Honey have two kinds different of bees product, bees produce two kinds of honey, real honey and Royal Jelly. Each of these products is believed have different function to our body. Here will describe a definition of Royal Jelly.

Royal jelly is the food of queens — not human monarchs, but queen bees. It's actually a substance secreted from the glands in the heads of worker bees that's fed to bee larvae. After a few days, the larvae that have potential to develop into queens continue to be fed this nectar. Since queen bees are much bigger, live longer, and are more fertile than all the other bees, this potion is believed by some to impart mystical qualities. In reality, royal jelly is comprised of 60 to 70 percent water, 12 to 15 percent protein, 10 to 16 percent sugars, and 3 to 6 percent fats, with vitamins, salts, and free amino acids making up the rest.

People who are allergic to bees and honey and those who have asthma can face real dangers if they take royal jelly. Reactions ranging from bronchial spasms, skin irritations, and asthma attacks, to more severe anaphylactic shock, and even death, have been reported from its ingestion. As with many supplements, pregnant and breastfeeding women and small children should refrain from using royal jelly. To be on the safe side, anyone with a compromised immune system should also steer clear.

So, what's the entire buzz about royal jelly? This supplement has been taken for a host of ailments. In addition to its use as a general health tonic, people take royal jelly to:

• enhance immunity
• prevent arthritis and multiple sclerosis
• slow the signs of aging
• stimulate hair growth
• improve sexual performance
• reduce symptoms of menopause
• heal bone fractures
• lower cholesterol
• alleviate cardiovascular ailments
• remedy liver disease, pancreatitis, insomnia, fatigue, ulcers, and digestive and skin disorders

Royal Jelly Quality Check

Royal Jelly Quality Check


Royal jell is a white part of the bee nest, this substance also have benefit to human health, many method to analyze the quality of this product, one of the quality check method use analytical methods. Analytical methods for residues of tetracyclines and acaricides in royal jelly.

After the ban on importations of royal jelly (RJ) from China and the recent increase in the production of European countries, this bee product has gained increasing interest. One of the main concerns for the quality of RJ is the presence of residues of chemicals used in beekeeping, but very few studies are found in literature on the analysis of this particular matrix.

Two analytical methods are proposed for the determination of acaricide and tetracycline residues in RJ. For the determination of acaricides, two sample preparation methods were established: the first one requires an alkaline dissolution of the sample, an extraction on a copolymeric sorbent and the subsequent elution with organic solvents; the other one requires mixing the sample with diatomaceous earth, a solid-liquid extraction with acetone:hexane and a florisil SPE purification. The second method is somewhat slower but preserves the analytes from alkaline breakdown. Both the sample preparation methods employ a GC/ECD determination. The method was tested for Brompropylate, Coumaphos, Fluvalinate and Flumethrine.

The method for tetracyclines requires an alkaline dissolution of the RJ sample and the solid phase extraction of the analytes on a hydrophilic-lipophilic copolymer, followed by an elution in acid solution. The eluate is then injected in an HPLC-DAD system with detection at 353 nm. The method was tested for Oxytetracycline, Tetracycline and Chlortetracycline. Demeclocycline can be used as internal standard.

Temperature Effect to Honey Quality

Temperature Effect to Honey Quality


Honey quality can change of temperature effect, this is because of honey contains itself can broken to high temperature, also vitamin contain can damage by high temperature effect. This is why; honey should be placed in certain condition, safe, cold environment and using glass bottle. The description of honey contain as follows.

Honey is a mixture of many substances. Apart from the carbohydrates which make up the basic components, numerous other substances are included. Among the volatile compounds which are related to honey’s flavor, most are compounds deriving from the original honey source (nectar, honeydew) and some of them arise during processing or storage.

In this work, the effect of heat on the profile of volatiles of pine honey was studied. Pine honey samples were heated to 45 °C, 55 °C, 65 °C, and 75 °C and for 1, 6, 24 and 48 hours. All samples were analyzed using a Purge & Trap - GC – MS system.

The results indicated that nine volatile compounds changed. All these substances were furan derivatives. It was found that the above changes were significant for temperatures higher than 45 °C. Also, the changes were depended on duration of heating. Furfural was the compound that had increased more than other substances. Moreover, the increasing rates of HMF and furfural concentrations were studied. It was concluded that furfural was more sensitive to heating than HMF. So as totally the honey quality will change or degrade and will lessen the function of honey to human body.