Honey utilization

The composition and properties of honey are dependent on floral origins utilized by the bees and the climatic conditions of the area from which honey is harvested /i, 2], Honey is a complex mixture, mainly composed of water, sugars (glucose, fmctose,... 

Dias and coworkers utilized an array of potentiometric sensors for the classification of honey samples from different Portuguese regions with respect to the predominant pollen type Erica, Echium, Lavandula. PCA and LDA were employed for the pattern recognition (see Fig. 2.25), after having verified that the variables followed a normal distribution. Cross-validation was applied for evaluating the classification rules, obtaining satisfactory prediction abilities for two classes (about 80%) and poor results for the third one (about 50%) (Dias et al., 2008). 

Ancient people, including the Phoenicians, Chinese, and Peruvians, discovered a dyeing process that utilized secretions of certain marine molluscs, animals that were also eaten as food.3 In processes that were perhaps closely guarded secrets, the molluscan secretions were heated for days in vats with water, salt, and additional additives including human urine, honey, etc. When the mixture was right, wool was dipped and allowed to air dry in sunlight to give the famous royal purple colors. 

This really is a slightly complex name for what is generally considered the animal subject. Test system, however, has been utilized because in many instances in toxicology, GLP now applies to such subjects as ground water, soil, insects such as earthworms and honey bees, and microorganisms such as daphnia and, therefore, the use of the word animal is not always applicable. 

The ability of yeasts to utilize sugars is not only of potential value it can also be a nuisance.25,26 Yeasts are notorious as spoilers of foods that contain a high concentration of one or more sugars, such as honey, maple syrup, sugar cane, and confectionery. The capacity of the yeasts Saccharomyces bisporus and Saccharomyces rouxii to ferment honey,27,28 which is composed of 70 to 80% of hexoses,29 is a feat of outstanding physiological interest in view of the remarkably high osmotic forces which the yeasts must withstand.30-32... 

A test performed to observe the swarming of ants to sugars showed that formose is not as attractive to ants as are natural sugars (see Table IX). Similar tests were performed with honey bees, lady beetles, cockroaches, and pearl moths in relation to swarming and utilization of formose, with similar results. 

Hymenoptera. While examining the effects of various dietary sterols on brood production in honey bees. Apis mellifera, we discovered that the honey bee utilized dietary C28 and (igg phytosterols unchanged (25,26). Regardless of the dietary sterol added to a chemically-deTTneJ diet, or even with no sterol added, 24-methylenecholesterol was always the major sterol of the next generation of bees, and sitosterol and isofucosterol were also present in appreciable amounts. Detailed studies with either radiolabeled campesterol, sitosterol, or 24-methy1 enecholesterol added to the artificial diet provided no evidence for the metabolism of any of these phytosterols to cholesterol or other sterols (27). 

In fact, H-24-methylenecholesterol has been traced unchanged through two generations of bees (28). Thus, there is a very unusual mechanism that enables the workerTee to selectively transfer certain dietary sterols or sterols cycled from their endogenous pools to the brood food to maintain a constant supply of certain sterols for the brood food. The utilization of neutral sterols by the honey bee and the inability to produce cholesterol from the dealkylation of 24-alkyl C20 and C29 phytosterols is reflected in the recent isolation of makisterone A as the major ecdysteroid at peak titer in the honey bee pupa (29). 

We have also found another phytophagous hymenopteran, the alfalfa leafcutter bee. Megachile rotunda to. that utilizes dietary phytosterols similarly to the honey bee (30). As in the honey bee, 24-methylenechol esterol was a major component (34.1% of the total sterols) of the sterols of newly-emerged adults. In addition, there was little cholesterol (<0.5% of the total sterols), indicating that this species also lacks the ability to produce cholesterol from... 

By C 2/Cl3 analyses many apple products purchased from Boston and New York supermarkets were shown to be adulterated with com syrup or cane sugar. This sophisticated analytical technique has proven very useful for detecting adulteration of honey with corn syrup and cane sugar. It cannot be used, however, for detecting addition of beet sugar or sugars derived from other plants that utilize the Calvin pathway for CO2 fixation (3, U ). 

SosATH, S., H. H. Ott, and E. Hecker, Irritant principles of the spurge family (Euphorbiaceae). XIII. Oligocyclic and macrocy-clic diterpene esters from latices of some Euphorbia species utilized as source plants of honey, J. Nat. Prod., 51,1062-1074 (1988). 

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