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Honey (madhu) sweet, viscid fluid produced by
bees from the nectar collected from flowers, and stored in their nests
or hives as food. Honey is classified according to origin as blossom and
honey-due-honey and by processing mode as comb, extracted or pressed-honey.
The colour, taste and odour of honey depend on the type of nectar
the bees collect. The main constituent chemicals of honey are
levulose (fructose) and dextrose (glucose); other chemicals are
sucrose, protein, K, P, Mn, Na, Mg, Ca, Fe, Al, Cu, Cl, S, Vitamin
A, B, C, K and E. The caloric value of honey is about 3,040 calorie/kg.
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Honey collection bees and
bee hive |
Honey is highly priced and has a wide range of use as
food and medicine. Two species of honeybee collect honey that has commercial
value: Apis dorsata has never been domesticated but produce most
of the honey in Bangladesh; A. cerana indica produce honey both
in the wild and in domestication. The apiculture practice is now being
popularized in Khulna, Jessore, Bogra, Mymensingh, Tangail, Dhaka, and
Chittagong. About 50 species of honey plants have been identified. The
sundarbans
is the major producer of honey in the country and account for about 20
per cent of the total honey production of Bangladesh. These are mostly
unifloral honey of goran-type and golpata-type. The other unifloral honey
of the Sundarbans is khalshi-type; it is very high priced due to its high
quality. The second important unifloral honey is mustard-type, mango-type,
and Indian jujube-type. Other honey of both wild and culture is the coconut,
onion and litchi-type. Most of the honey is collected from December to
June but the peak period for collections is February to April.
Honey is collected by pressing or squeezing the comb.
Blotting and blending of honey is done manually. About 109 m tons of honey
was collected from forest sources in 1995-96. The world production of
honey is about 1,500,000 m tons. China is the major producer (about 25%);
Germany is the highest consumer (1.8 kg/capita). The per-capita consumption
of honey in India is about 9 g; it is only about 2 g in Bangladesh. Honey
is traditionally consumed as table honey or as medicine.
[Mostafa Kamal Pasha] |
