Honey is natural sweet substance produced by honey bees from the nectar of plants or secretions of living parts of plants.
Honey is composed by carbohydrates, water, small amounts of a wide array of vitamins and minerals, including niacin, riboflavin, pantothenic acid, calcium, copper, iron, magnesium, manganese, phosphorus, potassium and zinc. Scientists found, in this wonderful product of nature, a complex of naturally flavored sugars as well as trace enzymes, minerals, vitamins, and amino acids.
Honey contains a variety of flavonoids and phenolic acids which act as antioxidants, scavenging and eliminating free radicals. The color and flavor of honey differ depending on the bees’ nectar source (the blossoms). Generally, darker honeys have higher antioxidant content than lighter honeys. In general, lighter colored honeys are mild in flavor, while darker honeys are usually more robust in flavor. In fact, there are more than 300 unique kinds of honey in the United States, originating from such diverse floral sources as Clover, Eucalyptus and Orange Blossoms.
Honey is made by bees in one of the world’s most efficient facilities, the beehive. The 60,000 or so bees in a beehive may collectively travel as much as 55,000 miles and visit more than two million flowers to gather enough nectar to make just a pound of honey!
Honey is a mixture of sugars and other compounds. With respect to carbohydrates, honey is mainly fructose (about 38.5%) and glucose (about 31.0%),[1] making it similar to the synthetically produced inverted sugar syrup which is approximately 48% fructose, 47% glucose, and 5% sucrose. Honey's remaining carbohydrates include maltose, sucrose, and other complex carbohydrates.[1] Honey contains trace amounts of several vitamins and minerals.
Honey is mostly sugars and is not a significant source of vitamins or minerals.[23] Honey also contains tiny amounts of several compounds thought to function as antioxidants, including chrysin, pinobanksin, vitamin C, catalase, and pinocembrin. The specific composition of any batch of honey depends on the flowers available to the bees that produced the honey.
Honey analysis.
* Fructose: 38.2%
* Glucose: 31.3%
* Sucrose: 1.3%
* Maltose: 7.1%
* Water: 17.2%
* Higher sugars: 1.5%
* Ash: 0.2%
* Other/undetermined: 3.2%
Honey has a density of about 1.36 kilograms per liter (36% denser than water). Isotope ratio mass spectrometry can be used to detect addition of corn syrup or sugar cane sugars by the carbon isotopic signature. Addition of sugars originating from corn or sugar cane (C4 plants, unlike the plants used by bees which are predominantly C3 plants) skews the isotopic ratio of sugars present in honey, but does not influence the isotopic ratio of proteins; in an unadulterated honey the carbon isotopic ratios of sugars and proteins should match. As low as 7% level of addition can be detected.