SCIENTISTS SEEK SECRET OF HONEY

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31866, 19 December 1968, Page 3

SCIENTISTS SEEK SECRET OF HONEY

Honey is one of the most efficient foods known. It has a growth element, it builds strength in premature babies and it has a significant sobering effect on those who have taken too much alcohol. It also contains an ingredient used in making atomic bombs.

But the way honey works is still a mystery. Scientists are working on research programmes to find out what makes it special.

American space experts have included honey in the staple diet of astronauts who will eventually fly to the moon.

Dr Feydor Kemmer of the University of Leningrad, who is conducting a governmentfinanced project to solve some of the most puzzling honey mysteries, said recently: “There is a growth element in honey that we have not yet found.” Pediatricians have found that it builds up strength in babies who do not readily tolerate other sugars.

Physicians who are tackling the problem of alcoholism have found that honey has a significant sobering effect on the human system. Honey contains deuterium, the “heavy hydrogen” of atomic explosions. Honey ranks as a natural marvel because of the way in which it is made. The process begins when the bee sips drops of nectar, a sugary secretion of plants.

The plant from which the bee gathers the nectar will give it its own particular flavour and colour. By the time the bee arrives at the hive, the nectar in his “honey stomach" has been processed by a special enzyme, added by the bee. This breaks the substance down into two sugars—levulose and dextrose. At the hive, after the bee has deposited the now changed substance, a new process begins. It is one of the most astounding in honey-making—-the bee’s own method of air conditioning. A group of bees gather at one entrance to the hive, another at the entrance on the opposite side. They buzz back and forth, vibrating their wings. “Air Conditioning” What they are doing is creating a current of air that whips through the hive, the bees on one side whipping in fresh air and those on the other, forcing the moist, heated air out.

After the day’s work of gathering nectar is done, the bees often spend, all * night working this ventilating system, thus reducing the nectar down to one third or fourth of its original weight. A single bee can carry a

quarter to a half of its own weight in nectar. And since a bee weighs less than a 5000th of a pound, that means that 10,000 bees would have each to make one trip to the gathering place to bring back one pound of nectar. The result of all this Is honey, perhaps the most remarkable of all natural foods. For instance, few man-made substances can equal the rapidity with which honey raises a lowered blood sugar count. Chidren’s doctors have found that given diets in which honey and milk were substituted for other foods, babies have fared tremendously well. With premature infants, many showed an immediate and sharp increase in the rate of weight gain. And it would seem that honey has a definite place in infant feeding. ; Nutritional Power To doctors and scientists, I the most intriguing aspect of honey is its special, and still little understood, nutritional power. Along with its sugars, levulose, dextrose, honey contains vitamins 81, C and K, not in large amounts but nevertheless surprising in an essentially sugary substance. It also contains a wide range of minerals, including copper, calcium, phosphate, iron, phosphorus, sulphur and manganese, as well as certain enzymes. No-one knows yet what ingredient in honey gives it its special digestibility and growth powers. Dr Kemmer is speeding up his investigations of these points. While feeding his laboratory rats, he found that on. a honey-supplemented diet the rats grew faster than with any other ingredients. The doctor does not know why, but he is sure there is a powerful growth factor in honey, and is now trying to find out what it is. Meanwhile, another scientist has discovered a remarkable ingredient in honey. It is deuterium.

Just what it adds to honey’s value as a food, Dr T. C. Helvey, a prominent researcher in this field, does not yet know. But he does know that deuterium definitely interferes with metabolism.—Provincial Press Features, Ltd, London.