Honey Production: A Simple Guide
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Honey production is the most common beekeeping activity. The majority of honey is nectar-based and of exceptional quality, making it easy to sell. However, be cautious when choosing honey, as many low-quality imported honeys are available in the market.
What’s in Honey?
Honey is a complex bee product containing carbohydrates, organic acids, proteins, vitamins, minerals, enzymes, and other substances. The carbohydrates in honey, especially glucose and fructose, are quickly utilized by the human body, providing essential energy.
Honey is a complex bee product. It contains carbohydrates, organic acids, proteins, amides, amines, minerals, vitamins, hormones, enzymes, higher alcohols, and other substances.
The carbohydrates in honey, especially glucose and fructose, are quickly utilized in the human body and serve as an excellent energy source. Blood transports glucose and fructose to liver cells and peripheral tissues. There, they break down, releasing a large amount of heat energy needed for the body's processes. The excess is synthesized in muscles and liver cells as glycogen, a reserve carbohydrate.
Nutritional Value
The nutritional value of honey does not lie in a single component but in the combination of various elements that form a natural whole. Due to its easy digestibility, honey is used for recovery and regeneration of the body. Compared to regular sugar, honey is easily digestible because it moves from the stomach to the blood without any prior changes. Therefore, honey should be used more in daily nutrition.
Types of Honey
There's plenty of medicinal honey plants, giving our honey unique health benefits. Honey can be single-flower (like acacia, linden, or sunflower honey) or multi-flower (like meadow honey). Bees also collect honeydew, a sweet secretion from plant-sucking insects, which is different from flower nectar.
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Honey Production Process
The honey production process, from a technological aspect, must be strictly followed. Beekeepers know that when bees bring nectar to the hive, they pass it to younger bees who place it in the honeycomb cells. Through intense activity, house bees reduce the water content and convert sucrose into simple sugars, glucose, and fructose, using the enzyme invertase. Once the process is complete, the bees seal the cells, and the nectar becomes honey.
Harvesting Honey
Honey is stored in frames within the hive. Beekeepers extract the honey after the nectar is processed and the cells are capped. The best honey comes from frames that haven't been used for brood rearing. The extraction is done in clean, warm rooms using equipment made of stainless steel for easy cleaning.
Health Benefits
Honey is great for strengthening muscles and supporting heart health. For heart patients, a drink made of water, honey, and lemon juice before bedtime is recommended. Honey is also beneficial for throat infections, coughs, and bronchial diseases. It's known to help with gastritis, stomach ulcers, and mild liver conditions.
Honey in Cosmetics
Honey is used in cosmetics for its nourishing, antibacterial, and healing properties.
Crystallization
Crystallization is a natural property of honey. Honey is a supersaturated solution of simple sugars, and crystallization is normal. Some honeys crystallize faster, others slower, depending on the ratio of glucose to fructose, storage methods, and humidity levels. It is recommended not to reheat honey to return it to a liquid state, as heating above 37°C damages its quality, altering its properties and depleting its beneficial compounds.
Fresh honey is a dense, transparent semi-liquid that gradually crystallizes. The crystallization speed depends on the sugar type and structure. Glucose and sucrose crystallize, while fructose remains liquid. Dextran, proteins, and plant oils slow down crystallization, while melicitose speeds it up. Honey with more glucose crystallizes faster and forms large, soft crystals. Honey with more fructose crystallizes slowly and forms small crystals. Large, coarse crystals form in honey with higher sucrose content. If glucose is less than fructose, two layers form: a liquid layer with fructose on top and a granular crystallized layer with glucose below. The best temperature for honey crystallization is 14°C. Lower temperatures slow but do not prevent crystallization.
Physical Properties
Honey's hygroscopic nature allows it to absorb moisture. Its viscosity depends on water content and temperature. The specific gravity of honey ranges from 1.420 to 1.440, and it varies in color from colorless to dark brown depending on the nectar source.
The color of honey depends on the pigments in the nectar and honeydew. Honey can range from colorless, light yellow, dark yellow, brown, to dark brown. The lightest honey comes from acacia; other light honeys include clover, willow, and linden honey. Nectar honey is mainly yellow, while honeydew honey ranges from dark yellow to brown. Tobacco and chestnut honey are brown.
The taste of honey is primarily sweet. The combination of aroma, sweetness from sugars, and acidity from organic acids gives honey a pleasant slightly sour fresh note, especially in fruit and acacia honey. Some types of honey can have a pronounced bitter taste. Honey with more fructose is sweeter.
Chemical Properties
Honey contains carbohydrates, water, minerals, enzymes, organic acids, vitamins, and other substances. It has a high content of monosaccharides (fructose and glucose), making it a valuable energy source. The mineral content in honey is similar to that in human blood.
Carbohydrates in honey are primarily monosaccharides: fructose and glucose, making up 75-85%, with sucrose up to 5% in nectar honey and up to 10% in honeydew honey. Honey is of higher quality if it has more glucose and fructose. Stored under normal conditions, sucrose slowly breaks down due to enzymes.
Water content in pure natural honey ranges from 13.39 to 19.75%. Some sources state the upper limit is 18%.
Honey contains many minerals. American researchers found that light honeys have four times less iron, twice less copper, and 14 times less manganese. Spectral analysis of 39 types of Bulgarian honey revealed the presence of elements like aluminum, beryllium, boron, bismuth, barium, vanadium, germanium, iron, gold, tin, potassium, cobalt, calcium, lithium, magnesium, copper, manganese, molybdenum, nickel, sodium, lead, silver, silicon, strontium, titanium, phosphorus, chromium, zinc, sulfur, chlorine, zirconium, and more.
Honey contains enzymes like invertase, diastase, catalase, phosphatase, dehydrogenase, oxidase, peroxidase, reductase, maltase, induzase, lipase, which regulate biochemical processes in living organisms. Invertase and diastase are present in higher amounts. Enzymes in honey continue their beneficial action in the human body, aiding digestion.
Honey's organic acids include malic, lactic, oxalic, citric, tartaric, gluconic, succinic, butyric, proglutamic, valeric, benzoic, and some higher fatty acids in the form of salts. They come from nectar, honeydew, and bee glands. According to international standards, high-quality honey should not exceed four milliequivalents of free acids. Old honey that has started to ferment and honey adulterated with invert sugar has increased acidity. Heating honey causes part of the fructose to break down, forming formic and levulinic acids. Formic acid does not exist in normal honey. Honey contains salts of some inorganic acids: phosphates, sulfates, and chlorides. The active acidity (pH) of honey ranges from 3.2 to 6.5 and is lower in nectar honey.
Proteins and nitrogenous substances in honey are present in small amounts but are significant for human nutrition, especially for children and the elderly, due to their high nutritional, preventive, and healing value. Honey proteins consist of albumin, peptones, and globulins. Honey contains 17 amino acids from nectar and pollen: lysine, histidine, arginine, asparagine, threonine, serine, glutamine, proline, glycine, alanine, cystine, valine, methionine, tyrosine, phenylalanine, and beta-alanine. Honey also has lipids in small amounts: triglycerides, sterols, free fatty acids, phospholipids, and esters of fatty acids.
Honey contains vitamins such as thiamine (B1) - 4.4 to 5.5 mg per 100 g of honey; riboflavin (B2) - 26.6 to 61.0 mg; pyridoxine (B6) - about 10 mg; pantothenic acid (B3) - 0.02 to 0.10 mg; niacin (PP) - 0.20 mg; ascorbic acid (C) - 3 to 15 mg; folic acid (Bc) - 3 to 15 mg; biotin (H) - 0.04 to 0.066 mg; in small amounts, tocopherol, provitamin A (carotene), K, and E. The amount and types of vitamins in honey depend on the nature of the plants from which the nectar is collected. For example, mint honey has the highest vitamin C content. Natural honey's vitamins have greater pharmacological activity than those produced by the pharmaceutical industry. The complete set of biogenic substances in honey (enzymes, ferment, phyt hormones, microelements) enhances the effects of vitamins and their healing properties.
Nutritional and Dietary Properties of Honey
Carbohydrates, making up 80-90% of honey, are a significant part of our diet. Honey predominantly contains simple sugars (monosaccharides), with fructose accounting for 38-40% and glucose 32-35%. Carbohydrates in honey, particularly glucose and fructose, are quickly utilized in the human body, providing a valuable energy source. Blood transports glucose and fructose to liver cells and peripheral tissues, where they undergo various changes. Much of it breaks down, releasing heat energy needed for life processes, and the excess is synthesized in muscles and liver cells as glycogen, a reserve carbohydrate.
Honey's sugars have many advantages over refined white sugar. For sugar to be usable in the body, it must be broken down into simple sugars by enzymes. These breakdown processes often burden the body's enzyme system, and if it cannot produce the necessary enzymes, the sugars remain unused. John Ludkin, a professor of nutrition in London, states that consuming large amounts of sugar is harmful as it increases blood cholesterol levels and damages the heart's coronary vessels. Modern medicine considers refined white sugar the number one enemy of today's civilized humanity. American physiologist F. Kendel analyzed mortality in 22 high-standard countries, noting that the primary causes are heart disease and arteriosclerosis. Research shows that arteriosclerosis and myocardial infarction are more common in countries with higher sugar consumption. As a preventive measure, Kendel recommends replacing sugar with honey, which does not raise blood cholesterol.
Allergenic Properties of Honey
Can honey cause allergic reactions? Studies show that very few people are allergic to honey. A survey of 10,000 patients and healthy individuals consuming honey found only 0.08% were allergic. Observations of over 40,000 patients treated with honey, including inhalations, electrophoresis, and local applications, showed no allergic reactions. Allergies occur only when consuming large doses of honey at once, over 5 g per kg of body weight.
Storage Tips
Store honey in glass, porcelain, or stainless steel containers. Keep it away from strong odors and direct sunlight. For the best quality, pack honey in glass jars immediately after extraction.
Conclusion
Honey is a nutritious and versatile product beneficial for health, diet, and skincare. Choose quality honey to enjoy its full benefits.
Looking for high quality honey? Here is a list of good ones:
California 100% Pure, Raw & Unfiltered Honey
TJO Bees Raw and Unfiltered Honey
Manukora Raw Manuka Honey, MGO 850+
Eco Bee Farms RAW HONEY - Raw, Unfiltered, Unpasteurized - Kosher