Honey as Versatile Remedy: A Focus on Selected Honeys

Abstract

Introduction: Honey is one of the oldest traditional medicines. It has been well known that honey contains various components that could be use as treatment option. Most commonly studied honeys include gelam, kelulut, acacia, tualang and pineapple honeys. This review listed the five most commonly studied honeys, its properties and the study model involved.Results: Honey has been reported to have multiple properties. Honeys were used to study their antimicrobial properties which includes antibacterial and antifungal, anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, anti-ulcer and wound healing, anticancer properties. Interestingly, tualang honey was used to study cognitive function and also used to study its ability to function as an adjuvant. Gelam honey and tualang honey both have been studied to determine their effects on fertility. From these five honeys reviewed, the most studied honey is tualang honey that showed significant impact not only on general health being and wound healoing, but also on cancer, inflammation, infection, oxidative stress, cognitive function as well as potential adjuvant. The studies were carried out on different study model from cell lines (in vitro) animal such as Sprague-dawley rats and Wistar albino rats and also human. Conclusion:Honey is a natural compound with significant impact on health and general well-being. These effects might be due to its phenolics and flavonoid content as well as its involvement as signalling molecule that initiates the possible mechanism that needs to be further clarified in the future in treating and preventing diseases.

In Vitro Modulation of Endogenous Antioxidant Enzyme Activities and Oxidative Stress in Autism Lymphoblastoid Cell Line (ALCL) by Stingless Bee Honey Treatment

“…is the bee species involved in the production of KH. Derived from multiflora sources, KH was reported to be ten times higher in antioxidant properties [ 9 , 10 ]. Reports from the previous studies showed that the total phenolic content (TPC) of the KH was higher compared to New Zealand manuka honey [ 9 , 10 ] and the total flavonoid content (TFC) was higher from Portuguese heather honey and Spanish rosemary honey [ 10 , 11 ].…”

“…Derived from multiflora sources, KH was reported to be ten times higher in antioxidant properties [ 9 , 10 ]. Reports from the previous studies showed that the total phenolic content (TPC) of the KH was higher compared to New Zealand manuka honey [ 9 , 10 ] and the total flavonoid content (TFC) was higher from Portuguese heather honey and Spanish rosemary honey [ 10 , 11 ]. Additionally, ferric-reducing antioxidant potential (FRAP) assay showed that the antioxidant activity of KH was higher than that was found in New Zealand manuka honey [ 12 ].…”

Antioxidant Properties of Stingless Bee Honey and Its Effect on the Viability of Lymphoblastoid Cell Line

“…In Malaysia, there are several types of honey including tualang, gelam, nenas, acacia and kelulut honey. Honey possesses anticancer, antibacterial, antimicrobial, anti-ulcer, anti-inflammatory, antinociceptive and antioxidant properties apart from being able to heal wounds and being a potential adjuvant (Hassan & Abdul Karim 2018;Machado De-Melo et al 2018;; Putri Shuhaili et al (Hassan & Abdul Karim 2018) which are essential for health and wellbeing of the host (LeBlanc et al 2017;Mohan et al 2017) For example, gelam honey contains high level of phenols, proteins, vitamins and amino acid which contribute to its anticancer and antioxidant properties (Goon et al 2017). Manuka honey also shows antioxidant property as it attenuates H 2 O 2 -induced oxidative stress in human whole blood cell (Zivkovic et al 2018).…”