Nowadays, health awareness has risen to a great extent and hence non-dairy probiotic products are in high demand by consumers due to the major set-backs, allergy, and lactose intolerance, of the dairy based
probiotic counterparts being commercialized. The functional attributes of such non-dairy probiotic products can be enhanced many fold by coalescing it with some natural prebiotic oligosaccharides. Prebiotics are
substances which cannot be digested by pathogenic microorganisms and thereby selectively enhance the development of probiotics. Probiotics are live microorganisms which confer health-benefits in humans.
Keeping this in view, the present review focuses on honey being an exceptional source of such prebiotic oligosaccharides (fructo-oligosaccharide, galacto-oligosaccharide) perfect for utilization to produce non-dairy synbiotic formulations. Honey is a natural food consumed by humans since many centuries by almost all
civilizations due to its rich nutritional and therapeutic values. It remains stable at room temperature for long
time. The complex nature of honey does not favor the development of majority of microorganisms. However,
honey has been reported to stimulate the growth and/or activity of probiotic microorganisms due to its
prebiotic content.
Honey is also being recognized as a potential prebiotic, since it has oligosaccharides that can promote the growth of lactobacilli and bifidobacteria, in addition to antimicrobial components which can act synergistically with the probiotics against certain pathogens.
Dairy products have long been used as carriers for probiotic bacteria by humans. However, these dairy products contain lactose, allergen compounds, and cholesterol and they require specific equipment for cold
storage due to their perishable nature. Due to all these factors, the need of new non-dairy based probiotic product has become a major objective of many researchers. The development of new non-dairy
probiotic food products is very much challenging as it has to meet the consumer’s expectancy for health benefits . In addition to being the most ancient food consumed by human, honey is a natural sugar
produced by honeybees. Honey is rich in simple sugars and contains small quantity of oligosaccharides . Shin and Ustunol (2005) have shown that honey sugars can stimulate the growth of bifidobacteria [5].
HONEY
Honey is natural sweet substance produced by honeybees from the nectar of blossoms or from secretions of living parts of plants or excretions of plant sucking insects on the living parts of plants, which
honeybees collect, transform, and combine with specific substances of their own, store, and leave in the honey comb to ripen and mature [6]. Hence, honey is subdivided into two categories: “nectar honey” or blossom
honey and “honeydew honey” or forest honey [7]. Mono-floral honeys are made from nectar and/or honeydew from a single plant species and this requires installing beehives near the plant sought. The polyfloral
honeys are made from nectar and/or honeydew from several plant species. Nectar Honey comes from nectars of plants. Nectar is a sweet exudation more or less viscous depending on its water content. This nectar
is produced by the nectar glands from the sap of the plant. Honeydew honey comes mainly from excretions of plant sucking insects (Hemiptera) on the living parts of plants or secretions of living parts of plants [6]. The
composition of honey and its properties are dependent on the botanical origin of nectar.
COMPOSITION OF HONEY
Honey is reported to have different compositions with varying concentrations of carbohydrates, organic acids, proteins, amino acids, vitamins, and flavor components in water medium. Detailed composition
of honey is listed in Table 1.
Table 1: Composition of honey (g/100g)
Blossom honey Honeydew honey
Average Min-max Average Min-max
Water content 17.2 15-20 16.3 15-20
Fructose 38.2 30-45 31.8 28-40
Glucose 31.3 24-40 26.1 19-32
Sucrose 0.7 0.1-4.8 0.5 0.1-4.7
Melezitose <0.1 4.0 0.3-22.0
Erlose 0.8 0.56 1.0 0.16
Total sugars 79.7 80.5
Minerals 0.2 0.1-0.5 0.9 0.6-2
Amino acids, proteins 0.3 0.2-0.4 0.6 0.4-0.7
Acids 0.5 0.2-0.8 1.1 0.8-1.5
pH 3.9 3.5-4.5 5.2 4.5-6.5
Carbohydrates
Honey is composed of about 80% carbohydrates. Among the carbohydrates, we mainly find fructose
and glucose which are monosaccharides. Small amounts of polysaccharides such as sucrose, melezitose, and
other sugars are also present. In total, over 25 different polysaccharides are reported in honey. The sugar
spectrum varies according to the kind of honey: the content of glucose and fructose is specific to the kind.
Water
In honey, the water content depends on the nectar flow, climate, type of hive, and other factors. It is usually less than 20% and then determines predominantly the keeping of honey. When honey has water
content less than 17%, it is more stable during storage and do not ferment.
Acids
Honey contains less than 1% (forest honey <2%) organic acids, nevertheless, these acids play a decisive role in the formation of its taste. The rich acid honeys (eg. honeydew) seem less sweet than those
containing fewer acids (eg. acacia honey). The main acid present is gluconic acid. Other acids such as formic acid, lactic acid, and oxalic acid are also found. Most honeys are acidic i.e., their pH is less than 7.0.
Amino acids and proteins
Honey proteins consist mainly of enzymes from the secretions of bees. The amino acids present in honey come on the one hand from the nectar flow and on the other hand from bee secretions. Proline is the
main amino acid from the bees.
Hydroxymethylfurfural
The hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF), sugar degradation product, appears only after honey collection.
According to the Swiss Food Manual, fresh honey, natural, can contain only 15 mg HMF / kg, while for other
retail honey, 30 mg / kg or less is permitted.
Minerals and Vitamins
Honey contains various minerals and vitamins. Honeydew honeys are richer in minerals than nectar
honey. Potassium is the main mineral present. Mineral content in blossom honeys is between 0.1 – 0.3% and
can reach 1% in honeydew honeys. Honey contains a number of minerals and trace elements (Table 2).
Table 2: Trace elements present in honey
Element mg/100g Element mg/100g
Aluminium (Al) 0.01-2.4 Fluoride (F) 0.4-1.34
Arsenic (As) 0.014-0.026 Iodine (I) 10-100
Barium (Ba) 0.01-0.08 Lithium (Li) 0.225-1.56
Boron (B) 0.05-0.3 Molybdenum (Mo) 0-0.004
Bromine (Br) 0.4-1.3 Nickel (Ni) 0-0.051
Chlorine (Cl) 0.4-56 Rubidium (Rb) 0.040-3.5
Cobalt (Co) 0.1-0.35 Silicium (Si) 0.05-24
Flavor and flavonoids
We can characterize 500 different aromatic substances in honey. Although the latter are present only
in trace, they nevertheless play a key role in the formation of the taste of honey. When the honey is heated, a
part of them are lost. As for the flavonoids, they are partially responsible for the color of honey. Dark colored
honey contains more phenolic acid derivatives but less flavonoids than the lighter ones [7].
Microorganisms
Honey has a high concentration of sugars and therefore a high osmotic pressure that cannot favor the
development of microorganisms. In honey much less bacteria is found than in other raw products of animal
origin. No pathogenic Bacillus species have been detected in honey. There are cases of infants poisoning due
to honey contaminated with Clostridium botulinum bacteria.
PROPERTIES OF HONEY
Honey has a very high nutritional as well as therapeutic value known since ancient times.
Nutritional and dietary values
Honey, food of all ages, has stayed until the last century, the sweetener of choice for food, until the arrival of cane sugar. Because of its high concentration of sugar, honey is an excellent source of energy. Honey represents an energy input of about 300 kcal per 100 g. Sugars in honey are quickly absorbed. Furthermore,
honey has sweetness greater than sucrose. Indeed, the sweetening power of fructose and glucose is 1.3 compared to 1 for sucrose from sugar cane or beets [8]. In young children, honey also promotes calcium
absorption and retention of magnesium in the body contributing to better bone and dental calcification. Enzymes, vitamins, and trace elements are also present in honey which facilitates digestion. However, there is
a risk of botulism in children under 1 year if the honey consumed is contaminated with spores of Clostridium botulinum. It will be best to avoid the consumption of honey before 1 year or, it is advisable to consume
pasteurized honey. For a variety of reasons such as poor appetite, indigestion, disturbed bowel function, loss of energy, fatigue, vitamin deficiencies, and supply of trace elements, etc., regular consumption of honey is advisable. It could help older people to overcome deficits, in particular by increasing their appetite.
Honey is also reported to have a protective effect against irritation of the digestive mucosa that appears with age. Honey acts by promoting a relative rest of the intestines because most of its components are absorbed as such
without prior processing. Moreover, very few food components provide a natural concentration of fructose as high as honey. This feature partially explains its “laxative” power which is an advantage for individuals with
physical inactivity which disrupts intestinal function. Due to its relatively large calorific value, honey is a food of choice for athletes. In the short term, glucose is an excellent fuel immediately available; at longer term,
fructose takes over, because it is indeed captured by the liver (without the intervention of insulin) and kept in reserve as glycogen. Honey is often considered a “functional food” that is to say a food ready for
therapeutic virtues. Indeed, it is credited with many therapeutic and pharmacological properties.
Therapeutic and pharmacological properties of honey. Besides their nutritional qualities, all honeys have common therapeutic and pharmacological properties more or less marked according to their floral origin. With the increasing prevalence of antibioticresistant
bacteria, honey is increasingly valued for its antibacterial activity. Currently, five main factors are responsible for the antibacterial activity of honey: osmolarity, acidity, hydrogen peroxide system (inhibin),
phytochemical factor bee defensin-1, and methylglyoxal (mgo). It is also reported to have healing properties, expectorant, anti-cough, action against chronic constipation, liver detoxification, role in alleviating digestive disorders (protection of the wall of the stomach, treatment of peptic ulcers).
With all these interesting properties of honey on the health of consumers, the demand for honey is rapidly increasing day by day. Thus, to satisfy this demand profitably, producers and sellers develop fraudulent
techniques (sugar addition, mix of two different honeys, etc.) to increase honey production. Therefore, to meet these maneuvers, there is an urgent need to focus on controlling the quality of honey in the market.
The quality criteria of honey
The main quality parameters are: color, moisture, pH and acidity, spectrum of sugars, the content of
5-hydroxy-2-methylfurfural (HMF), the activity of amylase (diastase), and the activity of invertase.
pH and acidity
Honey contains a wide range of acids which come directly from nectar (or honeydew), or from other enzyme reactions, and fermentations. The study of the acidity of honey helps to identify its botanical origin.
Nectar honeys have a low pH 3.3 to 4.5, while honeydew honeys have a slightly higher pH (4.5 to 5.5). An extreme pH values out of these intervals reveal a biochemical degradation of honey due to poor harvesting
conditions or conservation. Free acidity is expressed as milliequivalents (mEq) of sodium hydroxide required to neutralize 1 kg of honey and should not exceed 50 meq/kg.
Color
The color of a honey can be modified by the following factors: botanical origin, age, and storage conditions. Honey has various colors: from colorless to black, with beige, yellow, orange, and brown [11, 12].
Phenolic acid derivatives also have a role to play in the color of honey.
Moisture
Legally, the honey must not exceed 20% moisture [13]. Above this threshold, honey will ferment quickly or will crystallize poorly. The moisture level of honey is measurable with a refractometer.
Spectrum of sugars
The quality of honey depends on one hand on the total glucose and fructose content and on the other hand on the total sucrose content. Other sugars such as isomaltose, melezitose, trehalose, raffinose, palatinose, melibiose, nigerose, turanose, kojibiose, etc. can be detected by chromatographic or spectroscopic methods. Although the amount and type of sugars are very much influenced by the enzymes of the bee, the spectrum of sugars of honey can also give details of the nature of the source plants. The spectrum of sugars has its importance in fraud detection.
Invertase activity
The freshness of honey can also be determined by the activity of invertase. This enzyme is sensitive to heat and storage.
Diastase activity
The diastase activity of honey determined after processing and/or blending is generally not less than 8 Schade units and those with low natural enzyme content should not be less than 3 Schade units.
Hydroxy Methyl Furfural (HMF)
Ingestion of a high concentration of honey HMF (40 or 80 mg/kg) does not present any risks but it is a mark of denatured honey. Thus, analysis of the amount of HMF is an excellent method to assess the quality of
a hone. Honey is a natural food whose health benefits are well established. However, any combination of honey and probiotics could give additional health benefits.
PROBIOTICS
The term probiotic is derived from two Greek words, pro and bios, which literally means “for life”.
History and definition
The term probiotic was used for the first time by Elie Metchnikoff in the last century, a Russian researcher. He observed the positive role played by certain bacteria on health. Metchnikoff suggested that
“the dependence of intestinal microbes by diet makes possible the adoption of measures to change the body microflora by replacing harmful microbes by useful microbes. It was popularized by Fuller in 1989 when
he gave his first official definition: “Probiotics are dietary supplements containing live microorganisms which have beneficial effects on human being by improving balance and the stability of their intestinal microflora”.
This definition was revised several times and currently the most accepted is the one recommended by a panel of experts appointed by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization and the World Health
Organization. It indicates that probiotics are “live microorganisms which, when administered in adequate amounts, confer health benefits on the host”. Moreover, even if it is not mentioned in this definition, the
generally recommended dose to achieve beneficial effects is around 109 to 1010 CFU/ml per day in order to obtain about 108 live bacterial cells at the level of duodenum. The contribution must be regular since they do not colonize the intestine permanently . This may be due to the fact that the resident microbiota composition is specific to each individual and that exogenous bacteria are not easily established. The probiotic designation assigned to a microorganism is not random.
Selection criteria for probiotics.
The Joint Committee FAO/WHO established criteria and a methodology for the evaluation of probiotics and also defined the necessary data to the justification of health claims. Therefore potentially
probiotic microorganisms must meet several criteria:
Safety Criteria
Microorganisms must have a history of non-pathogenicity, which means they should be generally recognized as safe (GRAS). They must also be of human or food origin, characterized by phenotypic and
genotypic methods, be deposited in an international culture collection, present no possibility of transmission of antibiotic resistance genes and not be responsible for the dehydroxylation of bile salts.
Technological criteria
The strain should also be stable during the production process and in the finished product, and its probiotic properties should also be preserved after production.
Functional criteria
After the safety and technological criteria, the strain must show tolerance to gastric acidity and bile salts, be antagonist towards pathogens and produce antimicrobial substances (bacteriocins), adhere to various
intestinal cell lines and/or mucus and can boost the immune system. Probiotics should then also show some positive effects on the health of human.
Probiotic health benefits (Table 3)
The probiotic lactic acid bacteria improve digestion and nutrient absorption by producing digestive
enzymes. In the same way, the production of organic acids, hydrogen peroxide, and bacteriocins by probiotics inhibit the pathogenic microorganisms. Lactobacillus strains have been reported to improve
acute rotavirus diarrhea in children. The consumption of probiotics is a new therapeutic strategy in preventing or delaying the onset of diabetes and subsequently reducing the incidence of hypertension. The
concentration of Bifidobacterium spp. in the gut was positively correlated with improved glucose tolerance and glucose-induced insulin-secretion as well as decreased diabetes endotoxemia, plasma, and adipose tissue
inflammatory cytokines. Several studies have also shown that bifidobacteria can reduce the intestinal endotoxin levels and improve mucosal barrier thus reducing systemic inflammation and subsequently reducing the incidence of diabetes. Probiotic strains can also reduce allergy. The precise mechanisms have not been elucidated, but it relies on the ability of lactobacilli to neutralize the increased intestinal
permeability, strengthen response specific IgA in bowel, promote the gut barrier function by restoring normal microbes, and enhance the transformation of the growth factor beta and the production of interleukin 10 and cytokines that promote the production of IgE antibodi. Ong and Shah examined the release of ACE inhibitory peptides in Cheddar cheese made with starter lactococci and probiotics.
ACE-inhibitory peptides have also been found in yogurt, cheese, and milk fermented with L. casei ssp. rhamnosus, L. acidophilus, and bifidobacteria strains [34]. The study of Pawan and Bhatia showed significantly enhanced immune response by probiotic consumption and non-significant reduction in cholesterol level, HDL-C in the human subjects and decrease in systolic blood pressure in hypertensive patients by the consumption of ‘Dahi’ and ‘Lassi’ was also observed. The results of Kumar suggested that the indigenous L. plantarum Lp91 strain has the potential to be explored as a probiotic in the management of hypercholesterolaemia . The consumption of fermented milk containing an appropriate strain of L. acidophilus has the possibility to reduce the risk of coronary heart disease by 6 to 10%. Every 1% reduction of cholesterol level in the blood is associated with the
reduction of the coronary heart disease between 2% to 3% [37]. Many other authors demonstrated the hypocholesterolemic effects of probiotic lactic acid bacteria. Probiotics reduce cholesterol
levels by several mechanisms. Deconjugation of bile salts through the bile salt hydrolase enzyme.
(b) reduction of the synthesis of apolipoprotein B-100 [42]; (c) inhibition of HMG-CoA reductase by certain
metabolites of lactobacilli [43]; (d) ability to assimilate and fix the cholesterol in their cell walls [36, 44]. The
growth and activities of probiotics are generally enhanced by substances called prebiotics [45, 46].
Honey In Capsules-w/Probiotics
Pure honey in capsules with Probiotics to help aid and relieve
digestive system and add good bacteria to your stomach while doing so!
Ingredients:
Pure Honey + Acidophilus Probiotic Powder in 100% Vegetarian/Vegan or Gelatin Capsule – Please specify in checkout.
Indications:
For relief of Acid Reflux and/or IBS digestive discomfort and other uses