Honey as a Potential Natural Antioxidant Medicine: An Insight into Its Molecular Mechanisms of Action (original) (raw)
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Biochemical and nutritional components of selected honey samples
Acta Scientiarum Polonorum Technologia Alimentaria, 2014
Honey is a worldwide recognised natural food which has high nutritional value and many benefi cial health promoting effects. It consists mainly of carbohydrates (at least 60% in mass ratio), particularly reducing sugars such as fructose and glucose as fast energy source upon consumption. The minor components in honey include amino acids, vitamins, organic acids, minerals and various phytochemicals [Kaskoniene et al. 2010]. Somehow, the biochemical composition of honeys varies greatly dependent on the fl oral, regional and climatic conditions. Because of the great variation, extensive research has been carried out to classify and identify the origin of honey in relation to its physical and biological properties. To our knowledge, the study on the relationship between the biochemical (enzymes) and nutritional components of honey is very limited. Often, the quality of honey is the major concern of honey consumers, regardless of honey origin. This relationship is very important for food processing industry, particularly for those industries using honey as ingredient in their food products.
Natural Honey Beneficial to Health, Its Chemical Composition, and Biochemical Activities: A Review
Current Journal of Applied Science and Technology, 2022
Since early antiquity, honey has been utilized worldwide as a balanced meal and in supplementary treatment. It contains over 200 different substances, the majority of which are water, sugars, vitamins, enzymes, amino acids, minerals, and phytochemicals. It has health advantages, including microbial inhibition, healing, and its influence on other disorders. Additionally, it stimulates the immune system and helps immune cells mature. The nutritional value of honey is substantially influenced by the type of plants in the region, the climate, and the production process. Different types of honey were examined by various workers, they found a strong relationship between honey type and HMF, saccharose, and phenolic content, as well as acidity and antioxidant activity. For the level of vitamin C, glucose, and fructose, the combination of variety and manufacturing technique has a substantial influence. The focus of this study is on the biochemical processes and its potential health benefits. However, the precise mechanisms of honey's influence on many illnesses and activities have not yet been fully defined, and more study is necessary to understand their precise contributions.
Honey mainly consists of sugars and water. Apart from sugars, honey also contains several vitamins especially B complex and vitamin C, together with a lot of minerals such as calcium, copper, iron, magnesium, manganese, phosphorus, potassium and zinc are also present. Honey has been used for its healing, nutritional and therapeutic properties since ancient times. Its antibacterial potentials even against multi-drug resistant bacteria, such as Staphylococcus aureus, Bacillus cereus, Bacillus subtillis, Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus albus and Shigella sonnei has been proved. The nutritional composition, minerals, antibacterial, and antioxidant properties of honey will be reviewed here. There is no available information on Biochemical and antioxidant properties on Bangladeshi honey, so we investigate honey for better understanding biochemical properties of honey. Honey samples were collected from the Sundarbon, Khulna, Bangladesh. The levels of PH, Moisture, Ash, Vitamins, minerals, and ascorbic acid, ascorbic acid equivalent antioxidant content (AEAC), sugar, protein, anti- microbial activity and antioxidants were determined in the honey samples using ferric reducing antioxidant power (FRAP), ABTS radical scavenging Activity and 1, 1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) assays. The total phenolic and flavonoid were determined by Folin-Ciocalteu and colorimetric assay method. The results of this study indicate that the samples compare favorably with samples in many parts of the world and also fall within the limits of international standards. This review covers the composition, physiochemical properties and the most important uses of natural honey in human diseases.
Recent Advances in the Discovery of Bioactive Components from Natural Honey
Therapeutic Applications of Honey and its Phytochemicals, 2020
Honey is one of the most valued natural products introduced to mankind since antiquity. Traditionally, honey is not only used as a food product but also as an alternative remedy for clinical conditions ranging from wound healing to cancer treatment. Honey contains about 200 beneficial bioactive constituents primarily comprising glucose and fructose and it also encompasses some vitamins, amino acids, minerals, and enzymes from fructo-oligosaccharides. Honey is an essential source of phenolic compounds and it is of great interest to see the amount and type of phenolic acids and flavonoids as they are responsible for nutraceutical properties as well as promising pharmacological functions such as antimicrobial, antidiabetic, anticancer, neuroprotective, cardioprotective, and wound healing properties. Additionally, several recent reports have also verified that the phenolic compound profile in honey is closely linked to the botanical and, often, the geographic origin of this food product. In this book chapter, therapeutic effects associated with the bioactive compounds in natural honey have been thoroughly discussed.
In the long human tradition honey has been used not only as a nutrient but also as a medicine. Its composition is rather variable and depends on the floral source and on external factors, such as seasonal, environmental conditions and processing. In this review, specific attention is focused on absorption, metabolism, and beneficial biological activities of honey compounds in human. Honey is a supersaturated solution of sugars, mainly composed of fructose (38%) and glucose (31%), containing also minerals, proteins, free amino acids, enzymes, vitamins and polyphenols. Among polyphenols, flavonoids are the most abundant and are closely related to its biological functions. Honey positively affects risk factors for cardiovascular diseases by inhibiting inflammation, improving endothelial function, as well as the plasma lipid profile, and increasing low-density lipoprotein resistance to oxidation. Honey also displays an important antitumoral capacity, where polyphenols again are considered responsible for its complementary and overlapping mechanisms of chemopreventive activity in multistage carcinogenesis, by inhibiting mutagenesis or inducing apoptosis. Moreover, honey positively modulates the glycemic response by reducing blood glucose, serum fructosamine or glycosylated hemoglobin concentrations and exerts antibacterial properties caused by its consistent amount of hydrogen peroxide and non-peroxide factors as flavonoids, methylglyoxal and defensin-1 peptide. In conclusion, the evidence of the biological actions of honey can be ascribed to its polyphenolic contents which, in turn, are usually associated to its antioxidant and anti-inflammatory actions, as well as to its cardiovascular, antiproliferative and antimicrobial benefits.
Phytochemistry, metabolism, and ethnomedical scenario of honey: A concurrent review
International Journal of Food Properties, 2017
Honey is a natural domestic sweet food material and a chemically diverse superfluous product of nectar acquired from flowers. Owing to the presence of higher amounts of antioxidant compounds covering phenolic, enzymes, organic acids, and bioactive peptides, it holds a strong ability to prevent various maladies. In addition, honey has also been exploited in certain cardiovascular, gastrointestinal, neoplastic, and inflammatory states along with its role in the treatment of copious infections and surgical wounds. Flavonoids and polyphenols are important bioactive components present in honey and have antioxidant properties. Some bioactive compounds, for example luteolin, galangin, isorhamnetin, quercetin, and kaempferol, are present in honey. Phenolic acids and flavonoids have important pharmacological activities such as anti-allergic, antibiotic , anticarcinogenic, and hypoglycaemic. Moreover, curative potential of bioactive components and their utilisation in value added food products are also the limelight of this article.
Physico-Chemical and Physiological Values of Honey and Its Importance as a Functional Food
International Journal of Food and Nutritional Science, 2015
Honey is classified based on processing, and has physical, chemical and nutritional properties. It has wide acceptability as a complementary and alternative medicine, with extensive use for all human ailments including cancer. The medicinal potency of honey evolved from its biochemical activities and effects as a functional food. Honey contains all the six classes of dietary requirement of food, and can go for a complete meal. The availability of honey in natural state, its influence on physiological processes in all organs and provision of additional health benefits beyond nourishment gives it more recognition as a functional food. The inclusion of honey in infant and children diets, and use as food sweetener is nutritionally rewarding. The presence of several nutraceuticals, phytochemicals and other bioactive substances exerts influence on blood chemistry and body metabolism of honey consumers. This enhances biochemical activities, with consequent physiological modifications in the body. The bioactive substances in honey interact uniquely and work in synergy to give synergistic multiple ingredients factor. This factor helps honey to influence vital processes of the body, covering virtually all organs within the organism. The beneficial effects of honey as a medicinal agent are attributed to its significance as a functional food.