Ingredient Comparison of Liquid and Crystal in Crystallization of Honey

Abstract

With the increasing health consciousness in consumers, nutrients in honey such as glucose, added sugars, oligosaccharides, vitamins, minerals, and amino acids are gaining attention and its demand as a health food is increasing. In addition, it has also been used in treatment of wounds at several medical institutions. Honey is a transparent liquid when harvested, but often crystallizes, presumably due to super saturation of glucose or fructose. These sugars are thought to solidify through the growth of fine saccharides with the pollen in the honey as the crystal nuclei. No definitive reports have been published on this subject to date. In this study, we compared shifts in trace element components of liquid and crystal of honey after crystallization by measuring pollen and trace element contents in each portion as well as trace element contents in purified honey. These experiments showed that differences in pollen counts in liquid and crystal depend on the type of honey, although, in agreement with the accepted opinion that crystal contained larger quantities of pollen. Furthermore, differences in trace element contents were observed between liquid and crystal of honey, although liquid portions contained larger quantities of trace elements. Likewise, liquid portions in purified honey contained larger quantities of trace elements, which were concentrated in the liquid portion following crystallization. These data indicate that trace elements in honey not only originate from pollen, but also from the nectar.