Honey is a nutritious, healthy, and natural food, to which antioxidant, anti-inflammatory,
and antimicrobial properties have been attributed, mainly due to its content of phenolic compounds.
The aim of this review is to analyze the available evidence of the effect of honey on humans. Fortyeight
clinical trials published between 1985 and 2022 were analyzed, with a total of 3655 subjects.
More beneficial effects of honey intake than no or negative effects on different cardiovascular and
metabolic risk factors, glucose tolerance, mucositis caused by chemo-radiotherapy, cough in children
and wound healing, among others have been observed.

Honey, as one of the most important medicinal products, has been the
focus of many tribes and religions since the past. In eastern traditional medicine, such as that
which flourished in Iran, China and India, the features of healing wounds, curing digestive
diseases, increasing energy, and strengthening the body’s powers, etc., have been mentioned from
honey. Also, various tribes such as Maya in South America, Greece, ancient Egypt and other
nations have mentioned honey as a sweetener, treatment and even a tribute and a material for
trade, which shows the value of this product.

Honey is an organic natural substance that is produced from the nectar of flowers by Apis mellifera and is a
sweet, flavorful liquid. It contains sugars, small quantities of proteins, enzymes, amino acids, minerals, trace
elements, vitamins, aroma compounds, and polyphones. It is widely accepted as food and medicine by all
generations, traditions and civilizations, both ancient and modern. Honey is heavily used by Asian countries
such as Sri Lanka, India, Nepal, and Pakistan in their traditional medicinal systems. It is used as a remedy for
burns, cataracts, ulcers, diabetes, wound healing, etc.

Background: Honey is one of the most valuable foods that used in human societies to
treat many diseases due to its healing properties for centuries. The lack of an objective
way to distinguish natural honey from counterfeit honey has strengthened the field of
profiteering in this area and has led to the supply of counterfeit honey instead of natural
honey. So honey quality must be controlled analytically with the aim of guaranteeing the
reality and preserving the consumer from commercial speculation. Objective: The
present study was conducted to evaluate 24 samples of 9 commercial brands of honey in
Tehran’s markets with number 1 to 9 (1-AB, 2-TF, 3-DP, 4-JK, 5-SN, 6-SK, 7-IM,
8-MD, and 9-MH).

Abstract
Honey is a most important natural product obtained from beekeeping and produced from the nectar of blossoms
of flowers collected and processed by the honey bees. Honey might be the first sweetener used by ancient man in
human history. Honey predominantly contains sugars (glucose, fructose, etc.) with many other compounds like
proteins, amino acids, vitamins, minerals, etc. More than 400 different substances were reported to be found in
honey. The properties of honey show a discrepancy as per the source of the geographical origin and floral source
from which the nectar was collected.

An organic compound known as 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) is formed from reducing sugars in honey and various
processed foods in acidic environments when they are heated through the Maillard reaction. In addition to processing,
storage conditions affect the formation HMF, and HMF has become a suitable indicator of honey quality. HMF is
easily absorbed from food through the gastrointestinal tract and, upon being metabolized into different derivatives, is
excreted via urine. In addition to exerting detrimental effects (mutagenic, genotoxic, organotoxic and enzyme inhibitory),
HMF, which is converted to a non-excretable, genotoxic compound called 5-sulfoxymethylfurfural, is beneficial
to human health by providing antioxidative,