Honey
Mel
- Known today as
- Honey of bees.
- Kind
- Food & Drink, in 2 older authorities
- Constituents
- glucose, fructose, hydrogen peroxide, and 1 more
- Earliest authority here
- Egypt
- Qualities
- Heating: Lémery kept it from those of “a hot and bilious Constitution,” in whom it “readily turns into Choler,” and gave it to the cold and phlegmatic. What the degrees mean
Revised October 3, 2026: Checked against its sources, each read in full, in part, or in its abstract. Version 1, first published September 25, 2026.
Honey: what was it used for?
The vehicle of medicines, in oxymel, hydromel and mulsa, and a dressing for ulcers and wounds.
Honey: what does modern science say?
It is antibacterial; medical-grade honey is used on wounds and burns today.
Pharmacognosy & Toxicology
- Constituents
- glucose ChEMBL
- fructose ChEMBL
- hydrogen peroxide ChEMBLmade by the bee’s glucose oxidase
- methylglyoxal ChEMBLin manuka honey
- Mechanism
- The strong sugar is hostile to bacteria by osmosis; hydrogen peroxide adds to it, and manuka honey has a further, non-peroxide activity. Methylglyoxal is among the components under study.
- Toxic dose
- Infant botulism from spores; grayanotoxin in the “mad honey” of the Black Sea.
- Standing
- Several medical-grade honey dressings are approved by the US Food and Drug Administration for minor wounds and burns; by the reference article’s account the World Health Organization recommends honey for coughs and sore throats, children included.
- Jull, A. B., et al. (2015). “Honey as a topical treatment for wounds.” Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews. Abstract read · the text read
The abstract of each source, beneath its citation. For Club members. About the Club or sign in.
Constituent names open the compound’s record at PubChem, and “ChEMBL” beside a name opens its record at ChEMBL, the European Bioinformatics Institute’s database of bioactive molecules. Where a mechanism line was checked against ChEMBL (ChEMBL 37, read 1 October 2026), the check is shown with the measured value and its source paper, or says plainly that nothing has been measured. Doses are as the references give them, for description only; this is not medical advice. Each source carries the result of its check against Crossref, PubMed, or the authority’s page: see Verification.
Honey: what lore surrounds it?
Norse myth, as Snorri Sturluson tells it, makes honey the medium of poetic inspiration: the dwarfs Fjalar and Galar killed the wise Kvasir and mixed his blood with honey to brew the Mead of Poetry, which makes whoever drinks it a poet or scholar; Odin later stole it and gave it to the gods and to those truly gifted in poetry.
Used in These Compounds
Honey is an ingredient of 3 compound medicines in the database. For Club members. Create a free account or sign in.
Honey: what did the older authorities say?
- Egypt
- The Edwin Smith Papyrus treats wounds with grease, honey, and lint, bound on “every day until he recovers.”
- Hippocrates
- Praised oxymel and hydromel in acute diseases; see Oxymel.
Sources
- Hippocrates, Regimen in Acute Diseases. Read in full · the text read
- The Edwin Smith Papyrus (c. 1600 BC). Read in part · the text read
- Wikipedia, “Mead of poetry.” Read in full · the text read
- “Honey.” Wikipedia (read 2 October 2026). Read in part · the text read
- “Mānuka honey.” Wikipedia (read 2 October 2026). Read in part · the text read
- “Grayanotoxin.” Wikipedia (read 2 October 2026). Read in part · the text read
- Lémery, L. (1745). A Treatise of All Sorts of Foods, both Animal and Vegetable; also of Drinkables, trans. D. Hay. London: T. Osborne. Read in part · the text read
- Dioscorides. De Materia Medica, trans. T. A. Osbaldeston (2000). Johannesburg: Ibidis. Read in part · the text read
- Canale, F. (1622). Del modo di conoscer et sanare i maleficiati. Brescia. Read in part · the text read
In Symbols of the Psyche
The Bee: what it stood for in alchemy and in analytical psychology.
Verification
- Checked
- October 1, 2026, and October 3, 2026
- Passes
- Every sentence read against its sources, in the pass over the remaining 343 entries
- The Standing line checked against the authority it names (EMA, WHO, FDA, CITES, Commission E)
- Every dated or regulatory claim checked by category across the database
- Every source read, in full, in part, or in its abstract, and every sentence checked against what was read (October 3, 2026)
- Sources
- 10 cited: 2 read in full, 7 read in part, 1 abstract read. 1 with the abstract on file.
- Corrections
- None were needed.
What was checked, how, and what was found is set out on the Verification page. A checked source is one whose record was found; it does not make the entry medical advice.
Cite This Entry
Version 1 · first published September 25, 2026 · last revised October 3, 2026
- Chicago
“Honey.” In Materia Medica, edited by B. C. P. Statema. Version 1. The Thinking Press, 2026–. Last modified October 3, 2026. https://thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/honey.
- MLA
“Honey.” Materia Medica, edited by B. C. P. Statema, version 1, The Thinking Press, 3 Oct. 2026, thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/honey. Accessed 8 Oct. 2026.
- APA
Honey. (2026, October 3). In B. C. P. Statema (Ed.), Materia medica (Version 1). The Thinking Press. Retrieved October 8, 2026, from https://thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/honey
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See Also
Also in Hippocrates and the Hippocratic Writers
Honeyed wine and honeyed water in Hippocrates and the Hippocratic Writers · Black hellebore in Hippocrates and the Hippocratic Writers · Hyssop in Hippocrates and the Hippocratic Writers · Valerian in Hippocrates and the Hippocratic Writers · everything Hippocrates and the Hippocratic Writers names →
Drawing on the same sources: Wikipedia, Canale
Human fat · Henbane · Iron and steel · Fox’s heart · Malmsey · the bibliography →
Of the same qualities: hot and dry
Garlic · Juniper · Galangal · Lavender · Frankincense · what the degrees mean →
Nearby in the alphabet
Honey fungus (from black cords, the “shoestrings,” that spread beneath the bark) · Holy wells (many of them sacred long before Christianity, visited for cures) · The holy water stoup (and the small stoups kept in homes) · Hop (Humulus lupulus) · Holy water (usually with exorcized salt mixed in) · Horehound (Marrubium vulgare) · The Holy Name, IHS (the first three letters of Jesus in Greek, often within a sunburst)
Historical description, not medical advice.