Honey has many health benefits but choosing the right one is important, writes Meera Murugesan
THERE are more than 300 types of honey in the world. The colour, aroma and taste of each is highly dependent on the types of flowers the bees visited.
Which honey is the best? This depends on your needs.
Monash University Malaysia's head of school, pharmacy, Professor Gan Siew Hua says sourwood honey has a low sugar content but is rich in vitamin C (giving it a sour taste) and may be useful for diabetics.
On the other hand, manuka honey has high calcium levels and may be needed by individuals with osteoporosis.
Rubber tree honey is rich in iron and suitable for anaemics while cinnamon honey contains a compound that has an estrogen-like structure and may be more suitable for women (to combat premenopausal symptoms).
"Darker-coloured honey indicates that it has a high antioxidant content. Therefore, many consumers have a preference for it," says Gan.
Honey is a rich thick sweet substance made by bees. The bees collect nectar from flowers and regurgitate it back to be mixed with their saliva which contains enzymes.
Besides nectar which is a carbohydrate, bees also collect pollen as a protein source. Some types of bees (such as the stingless bee) may also collect a third substance called resin to build their hives.
When resin is mixed with bee saliva, a substance called propolis which is high in antioxidants is produced.
LOCAL FAVOURITES
Among Malaysian honey, sourwood and tualang honey (taken from the tualang tree which is one of the tallest trees in Asia) have high antioxidants, as confirmed by their high phenolic and flavonoid contents.
Unfortunately, both types of honey have sustainability issues since both are becoming scarcer with time, due to the rampant chopping down of trees for development.
Gan says this has led to meliponiculture or bee rearing, and the species that is often reared is the stingless bee.
Stingless bees are very different from honey bees. Unlike the honey bee, it does not sting and is of a smaller size.
The species can be reared at home or in farms. The bees keep their honey in pots made of propolis.
Since propolis has three times more antioxidants than honey and the honey is contained in the propolis pot, the antioxidants are transferred into the honey.
Furthermore, these small-sized bees can go deep into the flower to get nectar, inaccessible to honey bees (which can be two to 10 times bigger, depending on the species).
"Therefore, stingless bee honey is considered to be superior to tualang or sourwood honey," says Gan.
Bees are good pollinators, she adds. It is believed that the presence of bees in a farm may increase crop yield including banana and star fruit, by 2-3 times.
HONEY FACTS
* In order to produce a tablespoon of honey, bees have to visit at least 4,000 flowers.
* Besides nectar, bees also collect pollen as a protein source.
* Honey is rich in nutrients and has been used as food for at least 6,000 years.