A Sweeter Pill to Swallow: A Review of Honey Bees and Honey as a Source of Probiotic and Prebiotic Products

Abstract

Honey bees and honey, have been the subject of study for decades due to their importance in improving health. At times, some of the probiotics may be transferred to the honey stored in the honeycomb. Consumers may benefit from consuming live-probiotics honey, which can aid in suppressing the reproduction of pathogens in their digestive system. Prebiotics, on the other hand, are mainly carbohydrates that promote the growth of native microflora probiotics in the digestive tract to maintain a healthy environment and improve the gut performance of the host. Therefore, this narrative review aims to present and analyze ten years’ worth of information on the probiotic and prebiotic potential of honey bees and honey since not many review articles were found discussing this topic. Results showed that not many studies have been performed on the probiotic and prebiotic aspects of honey bees and honey. If further research is conducted, isolated probiotics from the bee’s gut combined with honey’s prebiotic properties can be manipulated as potential sources of probiotics and prebiotics for human and animal benefits since they appear to be interrelated and function in symbiosis.

Study of the activity of sunflower honey against a mixed microbial association isolated from bees with signs of dyspepsia in laboratory conditions

“…The antimicrobial activity of honey and its solutions is known (Chirsanova et al, 2021;Sajtos et al, 2022). After all, by taking such mixtures, the human body acquires a strong non-specific immunity (Carnwath et al, 2014;Mustar & Ibrahim, 2022). At the same time, "wild" bee colonies, consuming honey, form a high level of population resistance.…”

“…Since high concentrations of disinfectants can lead to toxic poisoning of bee colonies, antibiotic therapy is undesirable due to the transfer of active ingredients to beekeeping products. In addition, using unknown, for example, pro-or prebiotics can disrupt some systems' functioning in the bee body (Mustar & Ibrahim, 2022). Since ancient times, honey has been known to have healing properties, manifested in antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory, and antiseptic effects (Nemo & Bacha, 2021).…”

“…Phytoncides of this type of honey suppress the growth of pathogenic microflora (Nemo et al, 2021). The antimicrobial activity of honey is of interest to practitioners and researchers, as reported by several workers (Nemo & Bacha, 2021;Zhang et al, 2021;Hossain et al, 2022;Mustar & Ibrahim, 2022;Sajtos et al, 2022), but most of these reports are pretty contradictory. Therefore, our experiment aimed to study the activity of sunflower honey against a mixed microbial association isolated from bees with signs of dyspepsia in laboratory conditions.…”

The Gut Microbiota at Different Developmental Stages of Apis cerana Reveals Potential Probiotic Bacteria for Improving Honeybee Health

“…B. subtilis was one of the most important probiotic Bacillus species for humans and animals since they have a broad range of antioxidant and antimicrobial activities (such as surfactin, bacteriocins, bacteriocin-like inhibitory substances (BLISes), etc.) over numerous pathogenic fungal and bacteria and posed considerably good probiotic features [ 34 , 35 ]. Lachnospiraceae had a considerable ability to break-down diet-derived polysaccharides, such as starch, inulin, and arabinoxylan [ 36 ].…”

Summer Gifts from the Hive: Botanical Origin, Antioxidant Capacity, and Mineral Content of Hungarian Honeys

“…Since the issue of honey adulteration poses a great challenge internationally [75,76], it is essential to recognize the unique traits of each honey type, which can aid proper identification of these beehive products. As there is a growing interest in applying natural agents, such as the products of the beehive, for health maintenance [21,[77][78][79], the differences in antioxidant power, antibacterial property, and mineral content should be revealed for each honey type by further studies.…”