Potential of Honey in Sustainable Health Management

Abstract

Honey is a precious and sustainable natural resource. Ancient literatures belonging to early civilizations mention the use of honey by their physicians to treat patients with different symptoms, injuries or infections. The past few decades have witnessed various laboratories across the globe reporting their findings about the antimicrobial, wound-healing, anti-inflammation, anti-oxidant and anti-tumour effects of natural honey. Unfortunately, its use in modern medicine is severely limited. Scientific community is largely sceptical of its curative impact. The complex chemical composition and different beneficial properties of honey vary with its floral origin. Recently it has come into focus that honey has a very promising role in ‘green nanotechnology’. Nanotechnology offers the opportunity to better exploit the potential of many natural compounds for application in nanomedicine. However, the classic nanotechnology synthetic approaches are often hazardous. Many nations are hence focusing on safer, easier, eco-friendly synthesis methods, using natural resources like honey. But in India, only a handful of laboratories are interested in exploring the immense valuable prospects of different varieties of honey available in different states.Every year only 30-40% of India’s natural honey is harvested for sale and export, while the rest simply dries up. This is a huge waste of a valuable research resource that holds great promise for the pharmaceutical industry and in sustainable health management.