Over modern time, due to its outstanding medicinal value, honey has been both exported and imported globally. Like other food supplements, the therapeutic effects of honey also depend on its quality. Sensorial, chemical, physical, and microbiological characteristics are generally used to determine the quality of honey. Even within same species, the quality parameters of honey produced varies and dependent on other factors such as the maturity achieved in the bee nest or hive during the harvesting season, climatic and geographic factors, and other elements that affects the floral abundance. For example, in the United States only more than 300 different types of honey can be found, each with unique flavor and appearance, depending to its floral sources. Currently, researchers have established that the main reason behind the diverse color, flavor, and also functional properties of honey is mainly due to its phenolic composition rather than variation in other components, such as carbohydrates and proteins.
Despite that, a variety of phenolic compounds such as gallic acid, caffeic acid, catechin, and apigenin have also been reported in both honeys. Honey exhibits significant antioxidant, anticancer, and antiatherogenic activities which may be attributed partly to these compound. For example, SBH has been proven to show peculiar antioxidant activities and exhibits outstanding ability in reducing inflammation and infection. Therefore, in this, we describe the health effects of stingless bee honey in comparison with honey produced by the European honey bee. The importance of polyphenols in honey as well as their potential mechanisms in treating certain diseases is also discussed.
Microbial resistance towards modern antimicrobial drugs is rising and had become the topic of interest among the scientists in which scientists are developing novel drugs with less or no microbial resistance, and also have broad-spectrum inhibition activity. Despite the traditional uses of honey as therapeutic agents, honey is recently acknowledged in modern medicine development due to its valuable nutritional quality. It also portrays potential properties against reactive oxygen species (ROS), acts effectively as anti-inflammatory and antibacterial agents against bacteria and fungi and a potential substitute in reducing coughs and wound curing. The common therapeutic properties of most honeys are more likely based on their floral origins. Since few years back, the role of honey in wound healing has been widely studied and proven to be the most effective therapeutic effects of honey. Previously, honey has been used to treat wound infection and promotes wound healing by the Russians during World War 1. Mixture of honey and cod liver oil has shown to be effective by the Germans, in treating ulcers and burns. In addition, honey is world widely known for its roles in the treating of famous ophthalmological diseases such as keratitis, conjunctivitis, corneal injuries, blepharitis, and chemical and thermal burns to eyes.
Honey contains various polyphenols, which differs according to the origin and bee species. Various polyphenols, of which some are also detected in honey, have been proven to curb the development of many diseases. They perform this action via several specific mechanisms such as regulation of a specific gene expression or altering metabolic pathways by means of promoting or blocking specific pathways. However, differences in honey samples may affect the type of polyphenols found in honey. As one type of honey might not contain all of the polyphenols described and the protective effects of polyphenols are varied, it is advisable to consume variety of honey samples. The therapeutics effects of SBH and EBH such as antidiabetic, wound healing, anticancer, treatment of eye disease, and effects of fertility as proven by many scientific studies will be described as below. The therapeutics effects of both honeys are summarized in Table 3.
Table 3
Summary of therapeutic properties of European bee honey and stingless bee honey from previous studies.
| | Properties | Honey types and bee species | Therapeutic effects | Reference |
| | Antidiabetic | Nigerian honey (Apis spp.) | Increased high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol | [61] | | Reduced hyperglycemia, triglycerides (TGs), very low-density lipoprotein (VLDL) cholesterol, non-HDL cholesterol, coronary risk index (CRI), and cardiovascular risk index | | Gelam honey (Apis dorsata) | Increased expression of phosphorylated JNK and JKK-β. Reduced expression of TNF‐α, IL‐6, IL‐1β, and Akt phosphorylation | [62] | | Expression of TNF-α, IL-6, IL-1β, and Akt phosphorylation | | European bee honey (Apis spp.) | No effect on glucose level at low dosage | [63] | | Increased blood glucose at high dosage | | European bee honey and stingless bee honey (Apis cerana indica, Apis mellifera, Apis dorsata, Apis florae, and Trigona iridipennis) | Higher percentage of inhibition against α-amylase and α-glucosidase enzyme (Trigona sp.) | [64] | | Stingless bee honey (Geniotrigona thoracica) | Prevent increased of fasting-blood glucose (FBG), total cholesterols (TC), TGs, and LDL levels | [65] | | Increased HDL and serum insulin levels | | Decreasedchanges of histopathological and oxidative stress expression level, inflammation, and apoptosis markers in pancreatic islets | | Increased expression level of insulin |
| | Wound healing | Multifloral honey, West Bengal (Apis mellifera) | Close resemblance of D-spacing and collagen diameter to normal skin collagen (scanning electron microscope observation) | [66] | | Multifloral honey, Iran (Apis mellifera) | Increased Oedema and necrosis | [67] | | Less infiltration of polymorphonuclear and mononuclear cells | | Improve wound contraction | | Increased epithelialisation | | Increased concentrations of glycosaminoglycan and proteoglycan | | Multifloral honey, Ibadan, Nigeria (Apis mellifera) | Increased granulation tissue in electroscalpel (ES) wound | [68] | | Increased fibroelastic tissue in honey treated wounds of ES group and honey treated wound cold scalpel | | Tualang honey (Apis dorsata) | High tensile strength of colon anastomosis and fibroblast count | [69] | | | High inflammatory cells | | | European bee honey (Apis spp.) | High hydroxyproline level in jaundiced animals treated with honey | [70] | | High bursting pressure | | Stingless bee honey (Trigona spp.) | Prevent growth of rifampicin-resistant S. aureus and maintaining the sensitivity of S. aureus towards rifampicin | [71] | | Stingless bee honey (Apis mellipodae) | Showed effective effects in inhibiting growth of S. aureus and other pathogenic bacteria | [11] | | European bee honey (Apis spp.) | Stimulates healing process, clears infection, stimulates tissue regeneration, and reduces Inflammation | [58, 72, 73] |
| | Anticancer | European bee honey (Apis mellifera) | Increased number of viable HepG2 cells in the human hepatoma cell (HepG2) treatment | [74] | | Improvement of the total antioxidant status | | Caspase-3 activity is time and dose-dependent | | Multifloral honey (Apis mellifera) | Increased rate of incidence, the efficacy to multiply, and the tumor size | [75] | | Stingless bee (Trigona spp.) | Reduced the total number of ACF and aberrant crypt and multiplicity of crypt | [76] | | No changes in the level of blood profile parameters, liver enzymes, and kidney functions | | Trigona incisa, Timia apicalis, Trigona fusco-balteata, and Trigona fuscibasis | Increased cytotoxicity effects towards HepG2 cell line, while propolis crude extracts exhibit high cytoxicity effects towards all the human cancer cell lines | [77] | | Treatment of eye diseases | Honeydew honey(Apis mellifera) | Bacterial flora in the conjunctival sac of patients with cataract and scheduled for vitrectomy was successfully eradicated after 7 days | [78] | | Australian and New Zealand honey (Leptospermum sp.) | Reduced formation of the whole colony-forming units in the eyelids and conjunctivae in patients with dry eye syndrome after one and three months of therapy | [79] | | Tualang honey (Apis dorsata) | No difference between the conventional treatment with Tualang honey eye treatment for chemical eye injury | [80] | | European bee honey (Apis spp.) | Corneas manifested an immediate regression of the corneal oedema | [81] | | Stingless bee (Trigona spp.) | Retardation of the cataract progress in 20% of the rats in the group that received honey for the opacification treatment | [82] | | Stingless bee honey (Meliponula spp.) | Reduced the infection time for eye diseases caused by Staphylococcus aureus and Pseudomonas aeruginosa | [83] |
| | Fertility | Tualang honey (Apis dorsata) | Increased intromission and ejaculation percentage in rats | [84] | | Increased rate of fertility and mating | | Honey Uremia, Iran (Apis spp.) | Reduced apoptosis and necrosis rate of the testicular cells in cells affected by noise stress and thereby increased cell viability | [85] | | Tualang honey (Apis dorsata) | Beneficial effects on level of corticosterone, pregnancy outcome, and adrenal histomorphometry | [86] | | Tualang honey (Apis dorsata) | Reduced cortisol and increased progesterone level of stress-induced female rats | [87] | | | Increased testicular, epididymal weights, epididymal sperm count, motility, viability in nondiabetic, and sperm quality | [88] |
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Fatin Aina Zulkhairi Amin, Suriana Sabri, Salma
Malihah Mohammad, Maznah Ismail, Kim Wei Chan, Norsharina Ismail, Mohd Esa
Norhaizan, Norhasnida Zawawi, "Therapeutic Properties of Stingless Bee
Honey in Comparison with European Bee Honey", Advances in Pharmacological and
Pharmaceutical Sciences, vol. 2018, Article ID 6179596, 12 pages, 2018. https://doi.org/10.1155/2018/6179596
I have the hive and the bee location of stingless bees up
for show to show you the location and how their home that they make their honey
in. Kind of like a grid to satellite GPS view.
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