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Honey is one of nature’s most delicious and beneficial substances. It’s great for breakfast on toast or added to natural yoghurt as a snack and it’s used in dozens of recipes. Even if you’re not a honey aficionado, you probably reach for the honey jar when you have a sore throat or, as Mary Poppins said, “to help the medicine go down”. But you may not be aware of its religious symbolism, its uses throughout history or how it can help you to improve your wellbeing.

What is it?
Honeybees extract nectar from flowers and plants which they take back to the hive and regurgitate as their food source. The worker bees then do their bit by preserving the nectar in the form of honey inside wax honeycombs by a process of ingestion and regurgitation, which adds necessary enzymes.

There are many types of honey; each with their own distinct flavor and aroma depending on the floral or herbal source. Bees adapt to their environment and are able to gather nectar from such diverse flowers, herbs and plants as orange blossom, cherry blossom, dandelion, heather, clover and even cotton. The most sought after honey is called mono-floral, which means it originates from a single floral or herbal species. Whatever the variety, honey contains a combination of fructose, glucose, sucrose, maltose and water.

Ancient uses
There is evidence in the form of Spanish rock paintings that early humans discovered this sweet foodstuff 10,000 years ago. In Ancient Egypt honey was not only used as a sweetener but also for embalming the dead. In Ancient Rome, it was used as an alternative currency with which citizens paid their taxes or as an offering to the gods. It is said that Alexander the Great was buried in a coffin filled with honey. Roman soldiers sometimes took their bee-hives into battle with them. Honey made from Rhododendron around the Black Sea can be toxic as Pompey and his army discovered to their cost after eating poisonous honey from honeycombs that their enemies had placed along their route. Later, in 1489, Russians used toxic honey as a weapon to weaken the Tartars before slaughtering them.

In post-Classical Greece it was the custom before a new bride to dip her fingers in honey before beginning her married life. In pre-Roman England, Britons turned honey into a honey-brew that was sometimes mixed with mead. Druid storeytellers referred to Britain as “The Land of Honey”. In southern India gathering wild honey is an age-old sacred tradition associated with respectful rituals as it is in Malaysia when honey-hunters go out on moonless nights -  when bees are subdued incanting prayers – offering themselves to the bees as servants and speaking to them with endearments. In Yemen, honey was exchanged to resolve arguments and seal tribal peace treaties. Today, a kilogram of Yemeni honey from the eastern region of Hadramaut costs over US$ 200 in the UAE due to its legendary ability to increase vitality

Religious associations
Honey is referred to in the Holy Koran and the Hadith (sayings of the Prophet PBUH) as being a remedy for illness; a fact that has been substantiated by modern medicine. Likewise, both the Old Testament and the New Testament make references to honey: Samson opened the carcass of a lion and discovered it was filled with bees and honey; John the Baptist wandered a long time in the wilderness existing on a diet of locusts and honey. The Hindus believe that honey is one of the five elixirs of immortality.

Health benefits
A Sumerian tablet, circa 3000 BC, prescribes honey to treat an infected skin ulcer. Over 2,000 years ago, Aristotle referred to honey as a salve for wounds and sore eye. Dioscorides said honey was could be used for spots, sunburn, sore throats, coughs and “for all rotten and hollow ulcers.” The Roman physician Celsus believed honey could cure diarrhea. The Egyptians, Greeks and Romans all used honey to treat stomach complaints and wounds. In Mali, people suffering from measles spread it on their skin; in Ghana it is a traditional therapy for leg ulcers and in Nigeria it is thought to be a cure for earache. Honey was also a staple of Arabic medicine mixed with herbs or seeds such as “Black Seed” (Habbatul Baraka or Blessed Seed) that was – and still is – used for asthma, allergies, and gastrointestinal problems.

When modern medicine took over from practitioners of traditional cures, herbalists and shamans, for a while the curative properties of honey were consigned to fable. However, in recent times, there have been medical studies suggesting that the topical application of honey is useful in treating wounds by reducing swelling and scarring. Other studies have shown that honey can lessen eye inflammation and has beneficial effects on peptic ulcers and dyspepsia. It has also been proved that ingesting honey has an anti-allergenic effect.

Beauty aid
Great beauties have understood the magical properties of honey for centuries, including Queen Cleopatra who was known to bathe in milk and honey and the wife of the Roman Emperor Nero who mixed it with milk as a face lotion. England Queen Anne believed honey mixed with oil kept her hair thick and shiny.

Nowadays, honey is an ingredient in a variety of commercial shower gels, hair conditioners, moisturizers and face masks while women still mix it with milk as a moisture-inducing mask, with ground almonds and lemon juice as a facial scrub and with olive oil and lemon to smooth dry hands, elbows or heels. For a silky bath mix ½ cup of honey with one cup of almond oil, ½ cup unscented liquid soap and one tablespoon of vanilla extract.