Wednesday, February 2, 2011

Tuesday, September 2, 2008

Definition

Honey is sweet and viscous fliud produced by honeybees, and derived from the nectar of flowers
Honey gets its sweetness from the monosaccharides fructose and glucose.
It has the approximately the same sweetness as granulated sugar.
Micro organisms do not grow in honey because its relative low water activity, However it is important to note that honey contains dormant endospores of the bacterium clostridium botulinum which can be dangrous to infants as the endospores can transform to toxins-producing bacteria in the infant's immature intestinal tract, leading to illness and even death.
This learn us a lot as even the honey is very useful to humans but in some situations it may be harmful o even cause death to infants.
To me this information is new and very important to all of us to be carful with the infants.

Friday, August 29, 2008

History




Honey collection by humans is an ancient activity.
Honey has been used since ancient times both as a food and as a medicine. Apiculture, the practice of beekeeping to produce honey, dates back to at least 700 BC. For many centuries, honey was regarded as sacred due to its wonderfully sweet properties as well as its rarity. It was used mainly in religious ceremonies to pay tribute to the gods, as well as to embalm the deceased. Honey was also used for a variety of medicinal and cosmetic purposes. For a long time in history, its use in cooking was reserved only for the wealthy since it was so expensive that only they could afford it.
In the Roman Empire, honey was possibly used instead of gold to pay taxes
In some parts of Greece, it was formerly the custom for a bride to dip her fingers in honey and make the sign of the cross before entering her new home. This was meant to ensure sweetness in her married life, especially in her relationship with her mother-in-law.
In the accounts of the Ancient Egyptian Pharaoh, one hundred pots of honey were equivalent in value to an ass or an ox. Ancient Egyptian and Middle-Eastern peoples also used honey for embalming the dead.
Scythians, and later the other Central Asian nomadic people, for many months drove a wagon with a deceased ruler around the country in their last rites mourning procession, carrying the body in a casket filled with honey
After his death in battle, the head of Vlad III Ţepeş (of later Dracula fame) was cut off and presented to the Ottoman Sultan, preserved in a jar of honey.