Bee World

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The Composition of Honey

Jonathan W. White Jr.

To cite this article: Jonathan W. White Jr. (1957) The Composition of Honey, Bee World, 38:3,
57-66, DOI: 10.1080/0005772X.1957.11094976

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 BEE WORLD
Vol. 38 No.3 MARCH 1957

THE COMPOSITION OF HONEY*

JONATHAN w. WHITE, JR.
Eastern Regional Research Laboratory, Philadelphia 18, Pennsylvania,
U.S.A.t
There are many legends and tales of the virtues and values of honey,
and a perusal of the current American beekeeping journals shows that not
all the legends and fairy tales are inherited from the past. Some are being
manufactured and circulated today.
Much of the information given in this review has been discovered
during the seven years since an earlier review was published in Bee Wcrld
on the composition and properties of honey (Pryce-Jones, 1950). Both
before and since that date, honey has been studied far more intensively in
Europe than in America.
THE SUGARS OF HONEY
Honey is primarily a carbohydrate product, and sugars may make up
as much as 99% of the solids.
Until recently, the sugars of honey were thought to consist of glucose,
fructose and sucrose ; an ill-defined material of higher complexity termed
' dextrin ' completed the picture. This simple concept was consistent with
the inversion of the sucrose in nectar by the invertase of the honeybee, to
form its constituent sugars. It was essentially our knowledge of the sugars
of honey until the introduction of paper chromatography about 10 years
ago. Prior to that, the only addition to the list of sugars in honey was
made by Elser in 1924 who identified maltose. V. Fellenberg and Ruffy
(1933) criticized Elser's identification, but it was confirmed in 1941 by
van Voorst (1941), who used a fermentation method for honey analysis
and reported that honey always contained several per cent of maltose.
An early report on the use of paper chromatography for separating
the sugars of honey was made by Mayloth (1951). She reported the pre-
sence of glucose, fructose, sucrose, maltose, melezitose and dextrins,
basing her identifications on relative movement on the paper and reaction
to spray reagents. The next year Vavruch (1952) 'identified' fructose,
glucose, sucrose, maltose, and ' probably melezitose' by similar proce-
dures.
The first detailed report on the use of paper chromatography to
investigate the identity of the sugars in honey appeared early in 1952.
A paper by Taufel and Reiss (1952) summarized a thesis by Reiss, submitted
*Paper presented at the Tenth International Congress of Entomology, Montreal,
Canada, August 1956.
tOne of the laboratories of the Eastern Utilization Research Branch, Agricultural
Research Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture.
57
sa
to the Technical University of Berlin in 1951. They concluded that at
least five sugars were present in addition to those ordinarily known.
Further, they said that sucrose was found in only 4 of the 12 samples they
examined ; this conclusion was based on an analytical procedure (Taufel
& Reiss, 1951), which they termed differentiating hydrolysis. They attri-
buted the previously reported analytical occurrence of sucrose to partial
hydrolysis of honey dextrins.
Taufel and Reiss also considered the cause of the variable fructose/
glucose ratio of honeys. They postulated that either a polyglucose is
formed during ripening of honey, or glucose is isomerized into fructose.
They then analysed the products obtained by feeding sucrose and glucose
to bees. In the ' honey ' produced by sucrose-fed bees they found only
sucrose, glucose and fructose ; fructose exceeded glucose by about 3 %.
In the ' honey ' produced by bees fed only glucose they found 7% fructose
in addition to glucose. They concluded that the five new sugars found
(which they did not identify) originated in the nectar, and also demon-
strated the presence of several saccharides in nectar samples. They believed
that the variation in the fructose/glucose ratio was largely due to isomeri-
zation of glucose into fructose. Finally, they pointed out the effects of
their work on the conventional methods of honey analysis.
In another paper, which appeared the following year, Taufel and
Muller (1953) continued the discussion. Considering the possibility that
the new sugars originated in pollen, they analysed 12 pollen samples, but
found only glucose, fructose and sucrose. They suggested the possibility
that the sugars originated in resynthetic enzyme reactions arising from
transglucosidation by enzymes in acid media - which had just been
discovered - but came to no definite conclusion.
At our laboratory we had been investigating the minor sugars of
honey since 1949. We found that we could agree with the German workers
on two points ; that the amounts of the sugars were so small that identifi-
cation was extremely difficult, and that there were a number of sugars in
honey which had not been previously reported. However our number was
around ten in addition to glucose and fructose.
When the transglucosidation activity of sugar-splitting enzymes -
specifically, yeast invertase- was discovered in England in 1950 (Bacon
& Edelman, Blanchard & Albon), we considered the possibility that
honey invertase would show a similar activity. It did indeed, with the
production of at least 6 oligosaccharides from sucrose, in addition to
glucose and fructose (White, 1952 ; White & Maher, 1953a). We isolated
the principal sugar and determined its structure. It was a-maltosyl-
fructoside, a new non-reducing trisaccharide (White & Maher, 1953b).
We called it' erlose '. This sugar, together with other evidence, showed
that honey invertase is a glucose-transferring enzyme, or gluco-invertase ;
it differs in this respect from yeast invertase, which attacks sucrose from
the fructose end, transfers fructose and is termed a fructo-invertase.
Certain mould invertases, on the other hand, had been considered to be
gluco-invertases, but have now been demonstrated to be fructo-invertases
(Beating, 1953). It is immediately apparent that we have here a possible
mechanism for obtaining a fructose/glucose ratio of more than 1, since
glucose is preferentially combined in these minor saccharides. It seems to
be general that the plant invertases such as might exist in nectar are fructose-
transferring, and lead to oligosaccharide intermediates different from those
 59
produced by bee invertase. The transference of glucose to olig:)saccharides
was suggested as a means of increasing the fructose/glucose ratio, by
Maurizio at the 15th International Beekeeping Congress (1954). In her
opinion other mechanisms, such as the amount and activity of nectar
invertase, also contribute. The predominantly animal origin of the honey
invertase is indicated by the fact that its activity is glucose-transferring
rather than fructose-transferring.
Meanwhile we were engaged in developing a new method of honey
analysis. We agreed with Tiiufel and his co-workers that existing methods
for honey analysis were inadequate, and we developed a procedure using
selective adsorption as a pre-treatment for the honey solution. Application
of the procedure (White & Maher, 1954a) to a number of honey samples
showed reducing disaccharides to be general constituents of honey (White
& Maher, 1954b). It was recognized that maltose was only one of several
such sugars present.
Early in 1955 another publication from Germany by Goldschmidt and
Burkert described work on the minor sugars of honey. The workers used
paper chromatography with several solvent mixtures for the identification
of the sugars, and also enzyme reactions on the paper. The identifications
are not conclusive, since chromatographic evidence alone is not absolute;
they are subject to confirmation by isolating the sugars and determining
their physical properties. Goldschmidt and Burkert investigated honey,
honeydew honey and sugar-fed honey. Most of their attention was given
to honeydew honey ; in this they stated that they found glucose, fructose,
sucrose, maltose, isomaltose, erlose, kestose, melezitose, raffinose, dex-
trantriose, 4-glucosyldextrantriose and a higher carbohydrate. The same
sugars were found in honey, but in lesser amounts, with the higher sugars
absent from some. Honey from sugar feeding (contrary to the reports of
Tiiufel) was found to contain maltose, isomaltose and erlose in addition to
glucose, fructose and sucrose. It was concluded that sucrose, kestose,
melezitose and raffinose are introduced with the nectar, and that maltose,
isomaltose, erlose and dextrantriose are formed as secondary products by
transglucosidation in the body of the bee. Reducing disaccharide material
was reported by Austin (1956) as a general component of 40 samples of
Canadian honey analysed by the selective adsorption method. He sug-
gested that the ' maltose ' content of any honey depends to some extent on
methods used by the beekeeper in its production - on the time of extrac-
tion, the use of heat in processing, and the length of storage.
The only sugars of honey which have so far been adequately identified
are glucose, fructose and maltose. With regard to the so-called 'honey
dextrin', some writers confuse this alcohol-precipitable carbohydrate
material of honey with starch dextrins, although there is no evidence that
the two substances have anything iri common. Extensive purification as
reported by v. Fellenberg (1933) resulted in a material from flower honey
and from honeydew honey which he considered identical. He described
its properties, and showed that it differed from melezitose. Here. again
is an opportunity for the use of chromatography to extend our knowledge.
Chromatography of the higher sugar fraction from our selective adsorption
procedure for honey analysis has shown that there are several tri- and
higher saccharides, which collectively might make up the so-called honey
dextrin (White & Maher, 1954a). ·
60
ORGANIC ACIDS IN HONEY
We will next consider the acid group of constituents. Formic acid
had for many years been considered to be the principal acid of h3ney.
Several papers from Germany before the First World War contradicted
this view; it was shown by Farnsteiner in 1908 and confirmed by Merl
(•1908), Heiduschka and Kaufmann (19H) and Fincke (1912), that only
about 10% of the acidity of honey was due to this ac~d. Farnsteiner
believed the acidity was due to malic acid ; Heiduschka and his co-
workers reported the presence of the volatile acids butyric, valerie, caproic
and capric, and also lactic, malic, tartaric, oxalic and succinic acids. The
acids were not isolated and identified. Nearly twenty years later, Nelson
and Mottern (19}1) identified citric acid, malic acid, and succinic acid in
honey. These compounds were isolated and identified by derivative
formation ; acetic acid was also reported. Shortly afterwards Angeletti
(1932) reported d-gluconic acid in a sample of ' musty ' honey ; it was
separated and identified as the calcium salt. Its presence was ascribed to
mould activity.
As the advent of chromatography has opened the way to the separation
of minute amounts of sugars, and led to recognition of the complexity of
the carbohydrate composition of honey, it has become apparent that our
knowledge of the acids can also be greatly increased by this valuable
laboratory technique. Vavruch (1952) recently reported the paper chroma-
tography of the acids of honey ; he found malic, tartaric, citric, and traces
of succinic and lactic acids. Here again it is necessary to note that
unequivocal identification cannot be made by chromatographic means
alone ; physical characterization of the isolated compound or derivative
is required.
In our laboratory we have been engaged in the further identification of
the acids of honey. Using ion-exchange and column and paper partition
chromatography for isolation, and X-ray diffraction for identifica.:ion,
sufficient work has been done to show the complexity of the problem. Some
fifteen acids are evident from partition column chromatography, of which
four have been identified ; no addition to the list of known acids in honey
has however yet been made. This work is continuing.
VITAMINS IN HONEY
We now enter a field which has seen some controversy in the past.
Early determinations of vitamin content by feeding tests .vere rather
generally negative (Dutcher, 1918; Hawk et at., 1921; Scheunert eta/.,
1923; Kifer et at., 1929). Later examinations using chemical and micro-
biological methods (Haydak et at., 1942; Kitzes et at., •1943 ; Vivino eta/.,
1943) gave small but definite values for the various vitamins in honey.
There is no doubt that honey contains variable amounts of thiamine,
riboflavin, pantothenic acid, nicotinic acid, pyridoxine, ascorbic acid,
vitamin K, folic acid and biotin. There is also no doubt that the amounts
of these factors commonly found in honey are nutritionally insignificant
to humans.
A recent controversy regarding the amount of vitamin C in honey has
been summarized by Hansson (1949). Early animal assays for vitamin C
were negative. Ulrich reported to the 7th International Congress of
Entomology in 1938 that something like vitamin C occurred in honey,
and several investigators (Kask, 1938; Griebel & Hess, 1939) reported
 61
rather impressive amounts of so-called vitamin C in honey as shown by
chemical methods- 20 to 300 mg. per 1OOg. However, Becker and Kardos
(1939) declared, on the basis of animal feeding tests, that the reducing
substance present was not vitamin C.
Haydak has published a series of vitamin C values, determined
chemically ; these vary between 0.5 and 6.5 mg. per 100 g. honey. These
values are very low- and Haydak himself (Haydalc eta/., 1944) developed
symptoms of vitamin C deficiency while subsisting on a diet of milk and
honey (350 g. honey a day). The report of Gontarski (1948) that honey
contains an enzyme which destroys vitamin C seems to confirm the
practical absence of this vitamin from honey.
HONEY ENZYMES
The enzymes of honey are constituents of great interest and impor-
tance. Present only in the merest traces, they have a profound effect on the
nature and characteristics of honey. They may arise from the nectar, or be
added by the bee. Some enzyme activity might also be traced to the pollen
content, and some might come from micro-organisms present in nectar or
honey.
Enzymes which have been reported in honey include invertase,
diastase or amylase, an oxidase, catalase (Am.inger, 1910; Gillette, '1931),
a phosphatase hydrolysing glycerophosphate (Giri, 1938), and an acid-
producing enzyme (Cocker, 1951). The early literature on honey enzymes
was reviewe,d by Auzinger (1910). The statement has been made (GrUss,
1932) that the best honey should show all enzyme reactions of the living
cell.
Of all these enzymes, the amylase has probably had the greatest
amount of attention, because of the importance attached to the diastatic
activity of honey in Europe, which will not be reviewed here. It is
sufficient to state that it has been thought that since the diastatic activity is
decreased by heat, it can serve as an indicator of the degree of heating to
which a honey has been subjected. Only unheated or mildly heated honey
is acceptable in many European countries. Since some honeys appear to
be naturally low in diastatic activity, there has been some controversy,
and difficulty has been encountered in exporting honey to these countries
from the United States. As I understand the problem, it is not felt that the
diastase as such is valuable, but that important physiological or nutritive
properties of honey are damaged or destroyed by heat, and that diastase
can be Ufied as an indicator of heat treatment.
A recent publication by Kiermeier and Koberlein (1954) describes
their work on connecting enzyme activity of honey with its history of heat
treatment. They studied the effect of heating on the activity of diastase,
invertase, and catalase, and the enzyme which destroys ascorbic acid in
honey. Catalase activity was found in only one sample out of ten, and
in that sample it was much too small for use as an indicator. When the
authors examined the enzyme which oxidizes the ascorbic acid, they were
unable to check the results which Gontarski had obtained regarding this
enzyme. The destruction of ascorbic acid by honey solutions was verified,
but the reaction took place as well with boiled honey solutions as with
unheated honey, and it was not inhibited by cyanide. They believe it to
be non-enzymatic- and of course not useful for detecting any previous
heatin& of honey.
62
Kiermeier and Koberlein concluded that amylase and sucrase activity
in honey varied exceedingly; that the same heating damaged the enzymes
to different extents in different honeys ; that detection of heating by
diastatic activity alone is not possible, but that both diastase and sucrase
activity must be considered. General agreement in this has been expressed
by Schade, Marsh and Eckert (1956).
Before finishing this brief account of the enzymes of honey, one other
should be mentioned, the acid-producing enzyme reported by Cocker in
195'1. He investigated an occurrence which is familiar to anyone who has
determined the acidity of honey by titration. The end-point is difficult,
and the solution shows a marked tendency to drift back to the acid side.
This was noted by Walton (1944), who thought it might be due to alkaline
oxidation of sugars. He noted it with both honey solutions and honey
syrups. Cocker ascribed the action to the activity of an acid-producing
enzyme, and stated that the effect was not found with boiled honey, and
only to a smaller degree with honey produced by bees from sugar fed to
them. Cocker was unable to identify the acid formed, but stated that there
was some indication of keto-acids. He had overlooked the paper by
Gauhe (1941), published ten years earlier, in which she reported a glucose-
oxidizing enzyme in the pharyngeal gland of the honeybee. Gauhe stated
that the enzyme acted specifically on glucose, producing gluconic acid
and peroxide. In this respect it is very similar to a so-called glucose oxidase
-more properly a dehydrogenase - which is produced from moulds and
has found some commercial application. She did not report its presence in
honey.
PROTEINS AND AMINO ACIDS
There are other groups of constituents of honey, which have been
investigated to a greater or smaller extent in the past, but on which no
work has been reported for the past fifteen years. It was early recognized
that honey had a definite small protein content. Lund (1909, 1910) set
the nitrogen content for pure honeys at about 0 · 4 %, and that of artificial
honey much lower, and he devised a precipitation test to distinguish
between them. Moreau (191'1) reported the presence in honey of globulins,
albumins, proteoses and peptones. Langer (1910) devised a biological test
to distinguish between genuine and artificial honey. The albuminoids of
the honey were precipitated, and the honey then mixed with a rabbit
antiserum ; a precipitate was formed only with natural honey. Several
other immunological tests were developed about this time (Carl, 1910 ;
Thoni, '1913). That of Th6ni, involving an anti-bee serum, was claimed
to be quantitative and to show the amount of admixture of artificial honey.
It was used in Switzerland for this purpose at about the time of the First
World War (Kreis, 1915). The last publication available to me which
mentioned its use is a dissertation by Laske, dated 19'15 and abstracted
in '1921.
The free amino acids of honey have been determined by Lothrop and
Gertler (1933), and by Schuette and Baldwin (1944). The latter authors
found in 37 samples of light and dark honey an average content of 48 parts
per million. The amino-acid content of honey has also been used as a
measure of honey purity by means of the formol titration (Tillmans &
Kiesgen, 1927). The lowest value found in 319 samples by de Boer in
1947 was still three times that of artificial honey. No identification 0f
individual free amino acids in honey has been made. Vavruch (1952),
 63
who used chromatographic procedures, reported the free amino-acid
content to be negligible. In a trypsin hydrolysate of honey protein he
demonstrated the presence of alanine, glycine, histidine, leucine or its
isomer methionine, and probably serine, lysine and traces of glutamic acid
and aspartic acid.
HONEY COLLOIDS
The colloidal material in honey, as a class, has also had little recent
attention. It was shown some twenty years ago (Lothrop & Paine, 1931)
that honey contained from 0 · 08 to 0 · 8 % of colloidal material, of which
on the average 54% was protein, and which had an isoelectric point at 4 · 3
and hence (most honey being more acid than this) was positively charged.
The properties of the colloids - and their effects on the properties, pro-
cessing and stability of honey - were rather extensively explored by
Lothrop at that time. One presumes that the colloidal content of honey
comprises the enzymes, some of the pigments, and some wax, but the
identity of these materials with the colloids has not been shown. It has
been shown recen.ly that about two-thirds of colloid material in heather
honey is protein (Mitchell et al., 1955).
MINERALS
No discussion of honey is complete without including the mineral
content. Here again, if we can judge from publications, about three-
quarters of the work on the subject is in Europe. Haydak (1955) has
recently reviewed the nutritional aspects of the mineral content of honey.
He showed earlier (Haydak et al., 1942) that sufficient iron and copper
are present to maintain haemoglobin in rats on a milk and honey diet.
Gorbach and Windhaber (1939) reported 8 elements in flower honey and
about 21 to 25 in honeydew honey. These are largely present in merest
traces and are detected spectrographically. The most plentiful ash con-
stituents are Ca, Mg, Fe, Mn, Cu, P, Si, Ni, B, Al, and K. The average
ash content of honey is about 0 · 2% (Browne, 1908).
OTHER SUBSTANCES IN HONEY
Nearing the end of our list, we come to materials which are largely
unknown or are difficult to classify. The flavouring materials of honey
are probably the most important single group of compounds in it ; yet
for good and obvious reason our ignorance of them is great. Beyond the
identification of methyl anthranilate (Nelson, 1930) in orange honey,
and diacetyl (Schmalfuss & Barthmeyer, 1929) in honey we have no further
knowledge. New techniques and equipment for studying flavouring
materials are coming into use, so perhaps the future will bring us more
information in this field.
The next group of materials is the catch-all labelled' miscellaneous',
where we enter items not easily classified elsewhere. These include known
materials such as acetylcholine (Marquardt & Vogg, 1952), and unknown
materials characterized only by their biological activities. In this last
group we find a plant-rooting hormone (Oliver, 1940), an oestrogenic
factor (Dingemanse, 1938), a guinea-pig anti-stiffness factor (Church,
1954), and antibacterial substances (Dold et al., 1937).
Toxic material.> are not normally components of honey, and they are
not discussed here.
64
CONCLUSION
It would appear that research on honey is still in the phase in which
further work produces increasing complexity rather than simplification.
Certainly one can hope that before too long simplification will result from
the current and future research on the composition of honey, and that
reasonable explanations will emerge of the relationships between the
properties of honey and its composition, and between the composition of
honey and its origin.
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Reprints of this paper (RI5) can be obtained from the Hon. Publications Secretay,
Bee Research Association, Ashcroft, Ongar, Essex, price 1/- post free.

OBSERVATIONS AND OPINIONS

Seagulls attacking bees : In September 1956 the W. {1. Apiarist reports a
curious incident on the afternoon of 19th August. 'For two hours con-
tinuously between 50 and 100 seagulls [terns?] crossed and recrossed an
area of about a square mile at tree-top level. My hives appeared to be the
centre of attack. Each bird was literally lapping up bees as it passed over.
There were no ants or other flying insects visible, so I was forced to the
distasteful conclusion that the insects being so roughly handled were my
bees, and there were witnesses who were of the same opinion. The birds
were not in a flock, but were covering the area in a haphazard fashion from
all directions, the destruction of bees being no less for the lack of system
however '. No indication is given of the species of gull.