The traditional Mediterranean diet (MedDiet) is a well-known dietary pattern associated with longevity and improvement of life quality as it reduces the risk of the most common chronic pathologies, such as cancer and cardiovascular diseases (CVDs), that represent the principal cause of death worldwide. One of the most characteristic foods of MedDiet is olive oil, a very complex matrix, which constitutes the main source of fats and is used in the preparation of foods, both raw as an ingredient in recipes, and in cooking. Similarly, strawberries and raspberries are tasty and powerful foods which are commonly consumed in the Mediterranean area in fresh and processed forms and have attracted the scientific and consumer attention worldwide for their beneficial properties for human health. Besides olive oil and berries, honey has lately been introduced in the MedDiet thanks to its relevant nutritional, phytochemical and antioxidant profile. It is a sweet substance that has recently been classified as a functional food. The aim of this review is to present and discuss the recent evidence, obtained from in vitro, in vivo and epidemiological studies, on the potential roles exerted by these foods in the prevention and progression of different types of cancer and CVDs.

Relevance of functional foods in the Mediterranean diet: the role of olive oil, berries and honey in the prevention of cancer and cardiovascular diseases

Honey is characterized as a natural and raw foodstuff that can be consumed not only as a sweetener but also as medicine due to its therapeutic impact on human health. It is prone to adulterants caused by humans that manipulate the quality of honey. Although honey consumption has remarkably increased in the last few years all around the world, the safety of honey is not assessed and monitored regularly. Since the number of consumers of honey adulteration have increased in recent years, their trust and interest in this valuable product has decreased. Honey adulterants are any substances that are added to the pure honey. In this regard, this paper provides a comprehensive and critical review of the different types of adulteration, common sugar adulterants and detection methods, and draws a clear perspective toward the impact of honey adulteration on human health. Adulteration increases the consumer’s blood sugar, which can cause diabetes, abdominal weight gain, and obesity, raise the level of blood lipids and can cause high blood pressure. The most common organ affected by honey adulterants is the liver followed by the kidney, heart, and brain, as shown in several in vivo research designs.

https://www.mdpi.com/2304-8158/9/11/1538/pdf

The Toxic Impact of Honey Adulteration: A Review.

Stingless bees are a type of honey producers that commonly live in tropical countries Their use for honey is being abandoned due to its limited production However, the recent improvements in stingless bee honey production, particularly in South East Asia, have brought stingless bee products back into the picture Although there are many stingless bee species that produce a wide spread of products, known since old eras in traditional medicine, the modern medical community is still missing more investigational studies on stingless bee products Whereas comprehensive studies in the current era attest to the biological and medicinal properties of honeybee (Apis mellifera) products, the properties of stingless bee products are less known This review highlights for the first time the medicinal benefits of stingless bee products (honey, propolis, pollen and cerumen), recent investigations and promising future directions This review emphasizes the potential antioxidant properties of these products that in turn play a vital role in preventing and treating diseases associated with oxidative stress, microbial infections and inflammatory disorders Summarizing all these data and insights in one manuscript may increase the commercial value of stingless bee products as a food ingredient This review will also highlight the utility of stingless bee products in the context of medicinal and therapeutic properties, some of which are yet to be discovered

https://www.mdpi.com/2218-273X/10/6/923/pdf

Antioxidant-Based Medicinal Properties of Stingless Bee Products: Recent Progress and Future Directions.

Honey, a natural sweetener has been used universally as a complete food and in complementary medicine since early antiquity. Honey contains over 180 substances, including sugars mainly fructose and glucose, water and a plethora of minor constituents such as vitamins, minerals and phytochemicals. The chemical composition of honey varies depending on floral origin, environment and geographical conditions. The sugar components dominate honey composition and they are accountable for sensory and physicochemical properties in food industry. Although present in small quantities, non-sugar components are the major contributors to the health benefits of honey. Our review summarizes and discusses composition of honey, its protective effects and possible action modes on risk factors of atherosclerosis.

https://www.mdpi.com/2072-6643/11/1/167/pdf/1

Honey and Its Role in Relieving Multiple Facets of Atherosclerosis.

Background: vegetative diversity is based on different climate and geographical origins. In terms of beekeeping, herbal diversity is strongly correlated to the production of a wide variety of honey. Therefore, based on the existing plant diversity in each country, multiple honey varieties are produced with different health characteristics. While beekeeping potential and consumption preferences are reflected in products’ variety, this leads to an increase in the region’s economy and extensive export. In the last years, monofloral honey has gained interest from consumers and especially in the medicinal field due to the presence of phytochemicals which are directly linked to health benefits, wound healing, antioxidant, anticancer and anti-inflammatory activities. Scope and approach: this review aims to highlight the physicochemical properties, mineral profiles and antioxidant activities of selected monofloral honeys based on their botanical and geographical origin. Moreover, this review focuses on the intercorrelation between monofloral honey’s antioxidant compounds and in vitro and in vivo activities, focusing on the apoptosis and cell proliferation inhibition in various cell lines, with a final usage of honey as a potential therapeutic product in the fight towards reducing tumor growth. Key findings and conclusions: multiple studies have demonstrated that monofloral honeys have different physicochemical structures and bioactive compounds. Useful chemical markers to distinguish between monofloral honeys were evidenced, such as: 2-methoxybenzoic acid and trimethoxybenzoic acid are distinctive to Manuka honey while 4-methoxyphenylacetic acid is characteristic to Kanuka honey. Furthermore, resveratrol, epigallocatechin and pinostrobin are markers distinct to Sage honey, whereas carvacrol and thymol are found in Ziziphus honey. Due to their polyphenolic profile, monofloral honeys have significant antioxidant activity, as well as antidiabetic, antimicrobial and anticancer activities. It was demonstrated that Pine honey decreased the MDA and TBARS levels in liver, kidney, heart and brain tissues, whereas Malicia honey reduced the low-density lipoprotein level. Consumption of Clover, Acacia and Gelam honeys reduced the weight and adiposity, as well as trygliceride levels. Furthermore, the antiproliferative effect of chrysin, a natural flavone in Acacia honey, was demonstrated in human (A375) and murine (B16-F1) melanoma cell lines, whereas caffeic acid, a phenolic compound found in Kelulut honey, proves to be significant candidate in the chemoprevention of colon cancer. Based on these features, the use of hiney in the medicinal field (apitherapy), and the widespread usage of natural product consumption, is gaining interest by each year.

Monofloral Honeys as a Potential Source of Natural Antioxidants, Minerals and Medicine.

Many studies revealed the potential of honey consumption in controlling obesity. However, no study has been conducted using Malaysian honey. In this study, we investigated the efficacy of two local Malaysian honey types: Gelam and Acacia honey in reducing excess weight gain and other parameters related to obesity. The quality of both honey types was determined through physicochemical analysis and contents of phenolic and flavonoid. Male Sprague-Dawley rats were induced to become obese using high fat diet (HFD) prior to introduction with/without honey or orlistat for four weeks. Significant reductions in excess weight gain and adiposity index were observed in rats fed with Gelam honey compared to HFD rats. Moreover, levels of plasma glucose, triglycerides, and cholesterol, plasma leptin and resistin, liver enzymes, renal function test, and relative organ weight in Gelam and Acacia honey treated groups were reduced significantly when compared to rats fed with HFD only. Similar results were also displayed in rats treated with orlistat, but with hepatotoxicity effects. In conclusion, consumption of honey can be used to control obesity by regulating lipid metabolism and appears to be more effective than orlistat.

/pdf/four-week-consumption-of-malaysian-honey-reduces-excess-1sbefufhn5.pdf

Four-Week Consumption of Malaysian Honey Reduces Excess Weight Gain and Improves Obesity-Related Parameters in High Fat Diet Induced Obese Rats

The effects of adulterated honey consumption towards human health is not widely known; mainly due to lack of systematic
and scientific studies and low public awareness. In this study, short-term and long-term effects of consumption on two
brands of commercially honey are available in Malaysian market was investigated and compared to normal control (NC)
rats and rats fed with natural pineapple honey (PH) using male Sprague dawley rats. Adulteration of honey used in the
study was measured using physicochemical and antioxidant analyses and identified as adulterated honey A (FHA) and
B (FHB). No toxicity effect was found for short-term consumption (14 days with one honey consumption). However, visible
effects were observed after 16 weeks of study. Both FHA and FHB showed a significant increase (p>0.05) in cholesterol
(48.6 ± 4.8 mmol/L, 46.5 ± 3.6 mmol/L), triglycerides (26 ± 1.2 mmol/L, 24.4 ± 1.8 mmol/L) and glucose (28.4 ± 2.5
mmol/L, 25 ± 2.6 mmol/L) level respectively. In contrast, rats from NC and PH groups have lower cholesterol (26.5 ± 4.4
mmol/L, 18.94 ± 3.6 mmol/L), triglycerides (17.5 ± 1.2 mmol/L, 13.5 ± 1.5 mmol/L) and glucose (6.4 ± 1.4 mmol/L, 8.0 ±
1.5 mmol/L) level, respectively. The most critical finding was in total five rats from both fake honey groups showed early
mortality. This intensive study indicates long-term adulterated honey may harm to human health and required prompt
actions from various authorities locally and internationally to avoid other consequences in the future.

Adulterated honey consumption can induce obesity, increase blood glucose level and demonstrate toxicity effects

Stingless bee honey is one of the high demand honey in Malaysia. However, honey characters particularly from different
species is lacking in order to increase its commercial value. Thus, physicochemical profile analysis of honey harvested from
four major species of stingless bee in Kelantan, Malaysia, Geniotrigona thoracica, Heterotrigina itama, Lepidotrigona terminata
and Tetragonula laeviceps was conducted to investigate the honey character. Character of the stingless bee honey harvested
from various species from the same geographic area was compared. The results were then compared to stingless bee honey
from other countries. Most of physicochemical data of stingless bee honey from different species collected from Kelantan
showed almost similar values. However, value of pH, free acidity and total acidity displayed significant different results.
This indicates species of stingless bee may affect the results. In order to compare local stingless bee honey with international
stingless bee honey, the data was represented as mean regardless of their species. From the results, moisture content was
consistently high in stingless bee honey harvested from Malaysia, Thailand, Brazil and Venezuela while, other data showed
different values. The results demonstrated that species of stingless bee particularly from other countries is crucial in order to
characterize the honey. However, Malaysian stingless bee honey has unique character based on physicochemical data. The
data can be used as a marketing strategy in increasing commercial value of local stingless bee honey.

Physicochemical profiles of honey harvested from four major species of stingless bee (Kelulut) in North East Peninsular of Malaysia

Honey authenticity is one of the most critical honey trading issues worldwide. Fake honey (FH) represents almost 80% of
the honey market in Malaysia. Apart from violating consumer’s rights, FH consists of none of the beneficial nutritional value
other than pure honey (PH). Moreover, prolonged consumption of FH may cause harm to human health. However, data
regarding these issues is limited. In this study, both PH and FH were tested using 3T3-L1 adipocytes and in high-fat diet
(HFD)-induced obese Sprague Dawley rats. Initially, a physicochemical analysis was performed on both the honey samples
according to the Codex Alimentarius Commission and International Honey Commission procedures. After 72 hr, PH
significantly reduced lipid accumulation and triglyceride levels in the adipocytes. In the rats, low glucose, cholesterol, and
triglyceride levels were significantly detected after orally administered for 16 weeks. Conversely, FH significantly induced
higher lipid accumulation and triglyceride levels in adipocytes and excess high blood glucose, cholesterol, and triglyceride
levels in rats. The results demonstrated that FH has negative effects on lipid metabolism, and prolonged consumption may
cause health complications. Furthermore, prompt actions are required to address this problem.

Francis Kanyan Enchang

Papers

Four-Week Consumption of Malaysian Honey Reduces Excess Weight Gain and Improves Obesity-Related Parameters in High Fat Diet Induced Obese Rats

Adulterated honey consumption can induce obesity, increase blood glucose level and demonstrate toxicity effects

Physicochemical profiles of honey harvested from four major species of stingless bee (Kelulut) in North East Peninsular of Malaysia

Effects of pure and fake honey on glucose and lipid profile in vitro and in vivo study