What are Benefits and Medicinal uses of Honey (Shahad) ?

 

                            Honey

 

                                “Honey is a unique medicine.”

                    -Ayurvedacharya Vagbhata

                    A drop of honey is wordless, pleasant poem; divine song accomplishing sweet harmony; a chorus a warmth and light. Colours of innumerable flowers and there pleasant fragrance are latent in every drop of honey. Honey is a harmless combination of the perfume and sweetness of flowers.

                     Aristotle has stated, “when the stars rice in the sky and the rainbow is visible, pure honey oozes from the atmosphere. Honey is the sky’s   perspiration, of the sweet saliva dripping from the stars or the nectar trickling from the air.”

                      There are references in the vedas that people in those days were used to taking honey with spirituous liquor.  There are eulogies in honey. In the Arabian literature, honey pervades the poetry. Honey has a unique place in the poem of Hafiz.

                        The value of honey has been accepted in India since time immemorial. In Egypt also, honey had been used in the preparation of various types of medicines. In ancient Greece it was very popular. In Olympic games, it was largely used with hot water after strenuous exercises to replenish the store of exhausted energy. Hippocrates, the father of the European medicine, believed that honey bestowed long life and therefore used to recommend   it to his patients.

                         According to Vagbhata,   honey is good for eyes and it is used in the preparation of different medicines for the eyes. It is dry in its intrinsic nature and so it can be used for reducing obesity. Honey is a ‘rasayana’. It is aphrodisiac. It reduces fat and increase virility. It dislodges phlegm. In the Ayurveda, honey is regarded to be ‘Yogavahi’. It means that honey increases the curative power of the medicine with which it is combined.

                         The bees suck the nectar from flowers and deposit it in their honey sack. The bees have to visit over two to five lakh flowers to gather one kg. of  honey. Sometimes they fly to a distance of two miles from their hive in search of flowers. Honey stored in the hive has 75 percent of water. But as the time passes the water evaporates to a large extent. During this process the water content of the nectar is reduced to 20 percent.

                         In reality, the nectar gathered by the bees is a form of cane-sugar, but in the honey sack of the bee it undergoes chemical changes. The cane-sugar is converted into a combination of dextrose and levulose.  Hence the cane-sugar content of honey is only 1.9 percent. The total content of honey is 76.4 percent, of which levulose forms 40.5 percent and dextrose 34 percent. The average percentage of other constituents is: dextrin (1.5 per cent) and ash (0.18 per cent). Besides, it contains iron, phosphorus, calcium, sodium, potassium, sulphur and manganese in small quantities. It is the darker varieties of honey which contain more mineral salts. Honey contains the following vitamins in moderate quantities:

                         Thiamin 6 microgrammes, riboflavin 60 microgrammes, niacin 32 micrograms and Vitamin ‘C’ 5 microgrames.

                            As a sweet, honey is far superior to sugar-cane. Of all the carbohydrates it is most easily digestible.

                             In the Moscow hospital, on an experimental basis, T.B patients were given 580 to 750 grams of honey daily. The patient gained weight. They obtained considerable relief from cough. Their haemoglobin   percentage increased. As a fuel for the body honey has no equal. Sugar in honey is predigested and is directly assimilable. Its absorption takes place right from the tongue. As it can be assimilated without taxing the digestive organs, it constitutes an admirable food for weak persons. It has a beneficial effect on indigestion, colitis and acidity. In fever, when it is difficult to digest food, honey serves the purpose of a medicine for preserving energy. It is recommended as a good food in typhoid and pneumonia.

                             According to Dr. J. H. Kellogg, honey is an ideal food in the heart and the liver disorders. In the case of weakness of the heart or in hysteria, if honey is given with warm water, it serves the purpose of brandy or spirit of ammonia.

                            Honey is full of powerful antibacterial properties. The diarrhoea germs when placed in honey could not survive for more than 10 hours. The paratyphoid and the typhoid germs died within 24 and 48 hours respectively.

                            Ulcers heal rapidly when honey is applied to them. Honey is a mild laxative. It cures constipation and gives relief in cold, cough and sore throat. It is helpful in disturbed urination. It is considered to be a remedy for rheumatism and arthritis.