Honey and its nutritional and anti-inflammatory value

Abstract

Inflammation is the main key role in developing chronic diseases including cancer, cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, arthritis, and neurodegenerative diseases which possess a huge challenge for treatment. With massively compelling evidence of the role played by nutritional modulation in preventing inflammation-related diseases, there is a growing interest into the search for natural functional foods with therapeutic and preventive actions. Honey, a nutritional healthy product, is produced mainly by two types of bees: honeybee and stingless bee. Since both types of honey possess distinctive phenolic and flavonoid compounds, there is recently an intensive interest in their biological and clinical actions against inflammation-mediated chronic diseases. This review shed the light specifically on the bioavailability and bioaccessibility of honey polyphenols and highlight their roles in targeting inflammatory pathways in gastrointestinal tract disorders, edema, cancer, metabolic and cardiovascular diseases and gut microbiota.

Phenolic Compounds in Honey and Their Relationship with Antioxidant Activity, Botanical Origin, and Color

“…The study of honey has also been of great interest for its biological and clinical actions against chronic diseases mediated by inflammation, such as cardiovascular, neurodegenerative, and arthritic. The study of the bioavailability of phenolic compounds in honey has made it possible to have an application in the treatment of inflammatory pathways in disorders of the gastrointestinal tract, edema, cancer, metabolic and cardiovascular diseases, and gut microbiota [ 33 ]. The absorption of polyphenols in the upper gastrointestinal tract is relatively low, which is why they tend to accumulate in the colon, and they can change the intestinal ecology [ 34 ], some bacterial groups may be limited, others can thrive in the niche of the accessible biome impacting the health of the host [ 35 ].In this sense, it has been shown that phenolic compounds can improve the survival and adhesion capacity of probiotics in conditions similar to the gastrointestinal tract, improving a variety of biochemical markers and risk factors for chronic diseases [ 36 ].…”

An In Vitro Study of Different Types of Greek Honey as Potential Natural Antimicrobials against Dental Caries and Other Oral Pathogenic Microorganisms. Case Study Simulation of Oral Cavity Conditions

“…These honeys can act as both bacteriostatic and bactericidal depending on the concentration used. Pasture honey (4-8%) and 5-11% manuka honey were found to be bacteriostatic, whereas bactericidal activity was achieved at 5-10% and 8-15% concentrations, respectively [15,27,67]. In contrast, artificial honey (sugar solution which mimics the composition of honey) showed only bacteriostatic activity (at 20-30% v/v) and not bactericidal in the study of Bansal et al (2005) [68].…”

“…The fathers of medicine in classical antiquity mention honey as an excellent medicine for burns and trauma management [13,14]. Being a popular therapeutic in many cultures, honey is considered ideal for gastric and other ailments [15,16]. Chemically, honey is a supersaturated solution of carbohydrates (90-95% of its dry matter) containing no more than 20% of water (usually 17%) [17].…”

Applicability of Honey on Silkworms (Bombyx mori) and Quality Improvement of Its Biomaterials

“…It exhibits positive results when it comes to suppressing the production of NF-kB, MAPK (transcription factors), IL-6 and IL-1β (cytokines). On the other hand, regarding the inflammatory mediators, it has been evidenced that honey stimulates their production [2,92].…”