Curr Med Chem, 2012 Dec 28
In the long human tradition honey has been used not only as
a nutrient but also as a medicine. Its composition is rather variable and
depends on the floral source and on external factors, such as seasonal,
environmental conditions and processing.
In this review, specific attention is focused on absorption,
metabolism, and beneficial biological activities on human health of honey
compounds.
Honey is a supersaturated solution of sugars, mainly
composed of fructose (38%) and glucose (31%), containing also minerals,
proteins, free amino acids, enzymes, vitamins and polyphenols. Among
polyphenols, flavonoids are the most abundant and are closely related to its
biological functions.
Honey positively affects risk factors for cardiovascular
diseases by inhibiting inflammation, improving endothelial function, as well as
the plasma lipid profile, and increasing low-density lipoprotein resistance to
oxidation. Honey also displays an important antitumoral capacity, where
polyphenols again are considered responsible for its complementary and
overlapping mechanisms of chemopreventive activity in multistage
carcinogenesis, by inhibiting mutagenesis or inducing apoptosis.
Moreover, honey positively modulates the glycemic response
by reducing blood glucose, serum fructosamine or glycosylated hemoglobin
concentrations and exerts antibacterial properties caused by its consistent
amount of hydrogen peroxide and non-peroxide factors as flavonoids, methylglyoxal
and defensin-1 peptide.
In conclusion, the evidence of the biological actions of
honey can be ascribed to its polyphenolic contents which, in turn, are usually
associated to its antioxidant and anti-inflammatory actions, as well as to its
cardiovascular, antiproliferative and antimicrobial benefits.
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