Mellivory

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Honey badgers (genus Mellivora) are named for their diet of honey. Honey Badger Mellivora capensis Jerusalem Al Quds by Prof Dr Norman Ali Khalaf 2013.jpg
Honey badgers (genus Mellivora ) are named for their diet of honey.

Mellivory is a term for the eating of honey. Honey is a sweet and viscous substance created by some eusocial insects, notably bees, for consumption by members of their hives, especially their young. Honey is also consumed by many other animals including human beings, who have developed beekeeping to make supplies of honey both reliable and plentiful. Despite honey's limited antimicrobial properties (caused by the very high osmotic pressure of its concentrated sugars), it remains a food source for a variety of microorganisms.

Contents

Etymology

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The word mellivory derives from the Latin mel, "honey", and -vorous, "-eating". [1]

Nutrition

Honey is a syrup composed of several simple sugars, primarily fructose and glucose. [2] Wild honey also contains traces of bee larvae, adding fat, protein, vitamins, and minerals. [3] In many environments honey is the single richest source of carbohydrates for the organisms that consume it. It has been suggested that the concentrated energy provided by honey is in part what allowed humans to evolve such large brains, as large brains are metabolically expensive. [3] Honey also has limited antimicrobial properties. [4]

Mellivory by humans

Illustration of an Egyptian honey harvest in the sun temple of Niuserre, c. 25th-century BCE Beekeepingaegypt.jpg
Illustration of an Egyptian honey harvest in the sun temple of Niuserre, c. 25th-century BCE

Food

Over its history as a food the main uses of honey have lain in cooking, baking, confection, as a spread on bread, as an addition to various beverages such as tea, and as a sweetener in some commercial beverages. [5]

Due to its energy density, honey is an important food for virtually all hunter-gatherer cultures in warm climates, with the Hadza people ranking honey as their favorite food. [6] Honey hunters in Africa have a mutualistic relationship with certain species of honeyguide birds. [3] [7]

Fermentation

Possibly the world's oldest fermented beverage, dating from 9,000 years ago, [8] mead ("honey wine") is the alcoholic product made by adding yeast to honey-water must and fermenting it for weeks or months. [9] [10] The yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae is commonly used in modern mead production. [9] [10]

Mead varieties include drinks called metheglin (with spices or herbs), melomel (with fruit juices, such as grape, specifically called pyment), hippocras (with cinnamon), and sack mead (with a high concentration of honey). [10] [11] Honey is also used to make mead beer, called "braggot". [12]

Traditional medicine

Honey is a folk treatment for burns and other skin injuries. Preliminary evidence suggests that it aids in the healing of partial thickness burns 4–5 days faster than other dressings, and moderate evidence suggests that post-operative infections treated with honey heal faster and with fewer adverse events than with antiseptic and gauze. [13] Honey has long been used as a topical antibiotic by practitioners of traditional and herbal medicine. [14] [15]

In myths and folk medicine, honey was used both orally and topically to treat various ailments including gastric disturbances, ulcers, skin wounds, and skin burns by ancient Greeks and Egyptians, and in Ayurveda and traditional Chinese medicine. [16] Honey is used in apitherapy as a form of alternative medicine. [17]

Religious consumption

Humans consume honey as parts of some religions. In Judaism during Rosh Hashanah , apples are dipped in honey as a siman (symbol/omen) for a sweet new year. The custom is referenced neither in Tanach or the Talmud; one of its earliest mentions is in the interpolation of Rabbi Moses Isserless to the Shulchan Aruch, which he cites as a non-universal custom—unlike other Rosh Hashana simanim like beets and leek. [18] Nevertheless, the custom has grown to become nearly universal. Some suggest the custom has different or more ancient origins; Dr. Jefferey Cohen suggests the custom is a reminder of the manna provided by God to the Israelites as sustenance while wandering through the desert for 40 years. [19] In Hinduism, honey ( Madhu ) is one of the five elixirs of life ( Panchamrita ). In temples, honey is poured over the deities in a ritual called Madhu abhisheka . The Vedas and other ancient literature mention the use of honey as a great medicinal and health food. [20] In Buddhism, honey plays an important role in the festival of Madhu Purnima , celebrated in India and Bangladesh. The day commemorates Buddha's making peace among his disciples by retreating into the wilderness. According to legend, while he was there a monkey brought him honey to eat. On Madhu Purnima, Buddhists remember this act by giving honey to monks. The monkey's gift is frequently depicted in Buddhist art. [20] In Islam, according to the hadith , Muhammad strongly recommended honey for healing purposes. The Quran promotes honey as a nutritious and healthy food. [21]

Mellivory by nonhuman animals

Smokey Bear eating honey and berries in his enclosure in the National Zoo in 1984 SmokeyBear2.jpg
Smokey Bear eating honey and berries in his enclosure in the National Zoo in 1984

By invertebrates

There are several species of insects that are considered pests in beekeeping. Notably, small hive beetles, the unaptly named bee louse (a species of fly), ants, wasps and wax moths such as Galleria mellonella and Achroia grisella cause damage by eating honey directly. Of course, bees themselves also feed honey to their larvae. Western honey bees will rob honey from other hives, as will yellowjacket wasps. [22] In the Nomada genus, which is a genus of cleptoparasites, the female enters a beehive to deposit her eggs, and leaves. The offspring will eat the hive's resources and eventually leave themselves. [23]

By vertebrates

Honey is eaten by several types of mammals, notably skunks, raccoons, opossums, kinkajous, bears, and honey badgers. [24] Bears in particular are stereotyped as commonly attacking beehives, which does happen in nature. Bears are attracted to beehives for not just the honey, but also larvae and immature honey bees, which provide fat and protein. [25] The Russian term for bear, literally "Honey Eater", reflects this. Honey badgers are also well known for raiding beehives and eating honey, [26] [27] and are named after this part of their diet.

Honey and beeswax are also eaten by some birds, including honeyeaters and honeyguides, the latter of which are known to guide humans to bee colonies in order to partake in foraging mutualism. [7]

Mellivory by microorganisms

Honey, despite having limited antimicrobial properties, [4] is consumed by some microorganisms, particularly yeasts and spore-forming bacteria. [28] Notable fungi found in honey are Alternaria alternata , Aspergillus niger , Aspergillus proliferans , Aspergillus spelunceus , Chaetomium globosum , Cladosporium cladosporioides , Daldinia concentrica , Emericella discophora , Emericella qinqixianii , Penicillium corylophilum , Penicillium decumbens , Penicillium polonicum , and Penicillium echinulatum , while notable bacteria species are Debaryomyces hansenii , Zygosaccharomyces rouxii , Zygosaccharomyces mellis , Aureobasidium pullulans , and Cryptococcus uzbekistanensis . [29]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bee</span> Clade of insects

Bees are winged insects closely related to wasps and ants, known for their roles in pollination and, in the case of the best-known bee species, the western honey bee, for producing honey. Bees are a monophyletic lineage within the superfamily Apoidea. They are currently considered a clade, called Anthophila. There are over 20,000 known species of bees in seven recognized biological families. Some species – including honey bees, bumblebees, and stingless bees – live socially in colonies while most species (>90%) – including mason bees, carpenter bees, leafcutter bees, and sweat bees – are solitary.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Honey</span> Sweet and viscous substance made by bees mostly using nectar from flowers

Honey is a sweet and viscous substance made by several species of bees, the best-known of which are honey bees. Honey is made and stored to nourish bee colonies. Bees produce honey by gathering and then refining the sugary secretions of plants or the secretions of other insects, like the honeydew of aphids. This refinement takes place both within individual bees, through regurgitation and enzymatic activity, and during storage in the hive, through water evaporation that concentrates the honey's sugars until it is thick and viscous.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mead</span> Alcoholic beverage made from honey

Mead, also called hydromel, is an alcoholic beverage made by fermenting honey mixed with water, and sometimes with added ingredients such as fruits, spices, grains, or hops. The alcoholic content ranges from about 3.5% ABV to more than 20%. Possibly the most ancient alcoholic drink, the defining characteristic of mead is that the majority of the beverage's fermentable sugar is derived from honey. It may be still, carbonated, or naturally sparkling, and despite a common misconception that mead is exclusively sweet, it can also be dry or semi-sweet.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Beeswax</span> Natural wax produced by honey bees of the genus Apis

Beeswax is a natural wax produced by honey bees of the genus Apis. The wax is formed into scales by eight wax-producing glands in the abdominal segments of worker bees, which discard it in or at the hive. The hive workers collect and use it to form cells for honey storage and larval and pupal protection within the beehive. Chemically, beeswax consists mainly of esters of fatty acids and various long-chain alcohols.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ascomycota</span> Division or phylum of fungi

Ascomycota is a phylum of the kingdom Fungi that, together with the Basidiomycota, forms the subkingdom Dikarya. Its members are commonly known as the sac fungi or ascomycetes. It is the largest phylum of Fungi, with over 64,000 species. The defining feature of this fungal group is the "ascus", a microscopic sexual structure in which nonmotile spores, called ascospores, are formed. However, some species of Ascomycota are asexual and thus do not form asci or ascospores. Familiar examples of sac fungi include morels, truffles, brewers' and bakers' yeast, dead man's fingers, and cup fungi. The fungal symbionts in the majority of lichens such as Cladonia belong to the Ascomycota.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mold</span> Wooly, dust-like fungal structure or substance

A mold or mould is one of the structures that certain fungi can form. The dust-like, colored appearance of molds is due to the formation of spores containing fungal secondary metabolites. The spores are the dispersal units of the fungi. Not all fungi form molds. Some fungi form mushrooms; others grow as single cells and are called microfungi.

<i>Penicillium</i> Genus of fungi

Penicillium is a genus of ascomycetous fungi that is part of the mycobiome of many species and is of major importance in the natural environment, in food spoilage, and in food and drug production.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Honeyguide</span> Family of near passerine birds

Honeyguides are a family birds in the order Piciformes. They are also known as indicator birds, or honey birds, although the latter term is also used more narrowly to refer to species of the genus Prodotiscus. They have an Old World tropical distribution, with the greatest number of species in Africa and two in Asia. These birds are best known for their interaction with humans. Honeyguides are noted and named for one or two species that will deliberately lead humans directly to bee colonies, so that they can feast on the grubs and beeswax that are left behind.

Grayanotoxins are a group of closely related neurotoxins named after Leucothoe grayana, a plant native to Japan and named for 19th-century American botanist Asa Gray. Grayanotoxin I is also known as andromedotoxin, acetylandromedol, rhodotoxin and asebotoxin. Grayanotoxins are produced by Rhododendron species and other plants in the family Ericaceae. Honey made from the nectar and so containing pollen of these plants also contains grayanotoxins and is commonly referred to as mad honey.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Honey badger</span> Species of mammal

The honey badger, also known as the ratel, is a mammal widely distributed in Africa, Southwest Asia, and the Indian subcontinent. Because of its wide range and occurrence in a variety of habitats, it is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Apitherapy</span> Pseudoscientific alternative medical therapy using bee products

Apitherapy is a branch of alternative medicine that uses honey bee products, including honey, pollen, propolis, royal jelly and bee venom. There has been no scientific or clinical evidence for the efficacy or safety of apitherapy treatments. Bee venom can cause minor or major reactions, including allergic responses, anaphylaxis or death.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Royal jelly</span> Secretion from the glands of nurse bees

Royal jelly is a honey bee secretion that is used in the nutrition of larvae and adult queens. It is secreted from the glands in the hypopharynx of nurse bees, and fed to all larvae in the colony, regardless of sex or caste.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Greater honeyguide</span> Species of bird

The greater honeyguide is a bird in the family Indicatoridae, paleotropical near passerine birds related to the woodpeckers. Its English and scientific names refer to its habit of guiding people to bee colonies. Claims that it also guides non-human animals are disputed.

A mycotoxin is a toxic secondary metabolite produced by fungi and is capable of causing disease and death in both humans and other animals. The term 'mycotoxin' is usually reserved for the toxic chemical products produced by fungi that readily colonize crops.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Trichocomaceae</span> Family of fungi

The Trichocomaceae are a family of fungi in the order Eurotiales. Taxa are saprobes with aggressive colonization strategies, adaptable to extreme environmental conditions. Family members are cosmopolitan in distribution, ubiquitous in soil, and common associates of decaying plant and food material.

<i>Aspergillus</i> Genus of fungi

Aspergillus is a genus consisting of several hundred mold species found in various climates worldwide.

Apitoxin or bee venom is the venom produced by the honey bee. It is a cytotoxic and hemotoxic bitter colorless liquid containing proteins, which may produce local inflammation. It may have similarities to sea nettle toxin.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bees and toxic chemicals</span>

Bees can suffer serious effects from toxic chemicals in their environments. These include various synthetic chemicals, particularly insecticides, as well as a variety of naturally occurring chemicals from plants, such as ethanol resulting from the fermentation of organic materials. Bee intoxication can result from exposure to ethanol from fermented nectar, ripe fruits, and manmade and natural chemicals in the environment.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rosh Hashanah seder</span> Festive meal held on the Jewish holy day of Rosh Hashanah

The Seder for the night of Rosh Hashanah is the Jewish tradition of eating a festive meal composed of symbolic foods, reciting psalms, and singing zmirot.

<i>Penicillium spinulosum</i> Species of fungus

Penicillium spinulosum is a non-branched, fast-growing fungus with a swelling at the terminal of the stipe (vesiculate) in the genus Penicillium. P. spinulosum is able to grow and reproduce in environment with low temperature and low water availability, and is known to be acidotolerant. P. spinulosum is ubiquitously distributed, and can often be isolated from soil. Each individual strain of P. spinulosum differs from others in their colony morphology, including colony texture, amount of sporulation and roughness of conidia and conidiophores.

References

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  2. ↑ "What is Honey?". Food Insight. 2020-12-23. Retrieved 2022-09-21.
  3. 1 2 3 Wayman, Erin. "Humans, the Honey Hunters". Smithsonian Magazine. Retrieved 2022-09-26.
  4. 1 2 Mandal, Manisha Deb; Mandal, Shyamapada (2011). "Honey: its medicinal property and antibacterial activity". Asian Pacific Journal of Tropical Biomedicine. 1 (2): 154–160. doi:10.1016/S2221-1691(11)60016-6. ISSN   2221-1691. PMC   3609166 . PMID   23569748.
  5. ↑ White, Jonathan W. (1978), Chichester, C. O. (ed.), Honey, Advances in Food Research, vol. 24, Academic Press, pp. 287–374, doi:10.1016/s0065-2628(08)60160-3, ISBN   9780120164240, PMID   367113
  6. ↑ Marlowe, Frank W.; Berbesque, J. Colette; Wood, Brian; Crittenden, Alyssa; Porter, Claire; Mabulla, Audax (1 June 2014). "Honey, Hadza, hunter-gatherers, and human evolution". Journal of Human Evolution. 71: 119–128. Bibcode:2014JHumE..71..119M. doi:10.1016/j.jhevol.2014.03.006. PMID   24746602.
  7. 1 2 Spottiswoode, Claire N.; Begg, Keith S.; Begg, Colleen M. (2016-07-22). "Reciprocal signaling in honeyguide-human mutualism". Science . 353 (6297). American Association for the Advancement of Science: 387–389. Bibcode:2016Sci...353..387S. doi:10.1126/science.aaf4885. ISSN   0036-8075. PMID   27463674. S2CID   206648494.
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  9. 1 2 Pereira, Ana Paula; Mendes-Ferreira, Ana; Estevinho, Leticia M.; Mendes-Faia, Arlete (2015). "Improvement of mead fermentation by honey-must supplementation". Journal of the Institute of Brewing. 121 (3): 405–410. doi:10.1002/jib.239. hdl: 10198/16120 .
  10. 1 2 3 Iglesias, A; Pascoal, A; Choupina, A. B.; Carvalho, C. A.; Feás, X; Estevinho, L. M. (2014). "Developments in the fermentation process and quality improvement strategies for mead production". Molecules. 19 (8): 12577–90. doi: 10.3390/molecules190812577 . PMC   6271869 . PMID   25153872.
  11. ↑ Tierney, John (21 October 2014). "Making Mead in a Space-Age World". The Atlantic . Retrieved 20 June 2017.
  12. ↑ "Braggot: The Best of Mead and Beer". American Home Brewers Association. 2017. Retrieved 19 June 2017.
  13. ↑ Jull, Andrew B.; Cullum, Nicky; Dumville, Jo C.; Westby, Maggie J.; Deshpande, Sohan; Walker, Natalie (2015). "Honey as a topical treatment for wounds" (PDF). Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews. 2015 (3): CD005083. doi:10.1002/14651858.cd005083.pub4. PMC   9719456 . PMID   25742878. Honey appears to heal partial thickness burns more quickly than conventional treatment (which included polyurethane film, paraffin gauze, soframycin-impregnated gauze, sterile linen and leaving the burns exposed) and infected post-operative wounds more quickly than antiseptics and gauze.
  14. ↑ Buhner, Stephen Harrod (2012). Herbal Antibiotics: Natural Alternatives for Treating Drug-Resistant Bacteria (2nd ed.). Storey Publishing. pp. 188–196. ISBN   978-1603429870.
  15. ↑ Boukraâ, Laïd, ed. (2014). Honey in Traditional and Modern Medicine. CRC Press. p. 126. ISBN   9781439840160.
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  17. ↑ Barry R., Cassileth (2011). "Chapter 36: Apitherapy". The Complete Guide to Complementary Therapies in Cancer Care: Essential Information for Patients, Survivors and Health Professionals. World Scientific. pp. 221–224. ISBN   978-981-4335-66-9.
  18. ↑ Rema, Orach Chaim 583:1.
  19. ↑ Bramen, Lisa. "Why Honey Is Eaten for Rosh Hashanah, and Other Burning Questions". Smithsonian Magazine. Retrieved 2022-09-26.
  20. 1 2 A Meaningful Story of Buddha, Elephant and Monkey Archived 19 March 2008 at the Wayback Machine by Marguerite Theophil, United Press International, 16 November 2006, accessed 9 August 2008
  21. ↑ Yusuf 'Ali, 'Abdullah. An Nahl, Al-Quran Chapter 16 (The Bee) quoted from "The Holy Qur'an: Original Arabic Text with English Translation & Selected Commentaries". Saba Islamic Media. Archived from the original on 26 February 2013. Retrieved 20 May 2013.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  22. ↑ "ENY-163/IN1064: Robbing Behavior in Honey Bees". edis.ifas.ufl.edu. Retrieved 2022-09-22.
  23. ↑ "About The Nomad Bee - Species, Life Cycles And Hosts". BuzzAboutBees.net. Retrieved 2022-09-22.
  24. ↑ "5 Animals That Love Raw Honey". Manuka Honey USA. 2018-05-28. Retrieved 2022-09-20.
  25. ↑ Manning, Elizabeth. "ASK A WILDLIFE BIOLOGIST, Alaska Department of Fish and Game". www.adfg.alaska.gov. Retrieved 2022-09-21.
  26. ↑ Stievater, Becca (26 June 2019). "Beehive Fences to Deter Both Elephants and Honey Badgers". wildnet.org. Retrieved 20 September 2022.
  27. ↑ Zielinski, Sarah. "Honey Badgers Are Real". Smithsonian Magazine. Retrieved 2022-09-23.
  28. ↑ Snowdon, Jill A; Cliver, Dean O (1996-08-01). "Microorganisms in honey". International Journal of Food Microbiology. 31 (1): 1–26. doi:10.1016/0168-1605(96)00970-1. ISSN   0168-1605. PMID   8880294.
  29. ↑ Toledo, Vagner De Alencar Arnaut De (2017-03-15). Honey Analysis. BoD – Books on Demand. ISBN   978-953-51-2879-3.
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