Types of honey consumed in the North East

The north east of India is home to a multitude of things and products that are exotic, wholly nutritious, rare, unique and extremely medicinal in their properties. One of these amazing products of the north east is the raw honey and its varieties that are a thing of world-wide interest because if its Himalayan topography and medicinal values.

There are but a few very rare and very medicinal honey varieties in the north east and in this write up we shall explore these many varieties:

1. Honeycomb honey:

Honeycomb is a natural structure that is made by the honey bees that they use to store not only honey, but pollen of plants as well as their broods. The structure is simply a long series of hexagonal cells that made of beeswax and vessel the purest form of raw honey. The comb may also hold bee pollen, the propolis and the most delicious part, the royal jelly these are all products that the bees make apart from honey that have health benefits of their own. It is absolutely possible and delicious to eat a whole honeycomb along with the waxy cells that surround the honey. The raw form of honey is rich in texture as well as flavour and the wax can be easily chewed for a long time in replacement of gums.

Health benefits of consuming this form of honey:

• Honey comb is a rich source of powerful antioxidants as well as carbohydrates. It is also full of other nutrients in smaller amounts.
• The main component of honeycomb however is the honey that is packed with proteins, minerals and vitamins but is mostly made of water and natural nectar or sugar.
• In its unprocessed form (which is the most beneficial form of consumption), raw honey consists of glucose oxidase and other such enzymes that have antibacterial as well as antimicrobial effects.
• Beeswax that is found in the honeycomb is known to provide long-chain fatty acids and alcohols that are known to be great for heart health. These compounds from the beeswax also aid lowering of the cholesterol levels in a person.
• In a recent test tube study it was observed that extracts from the beeswax is helpful in protecting against fungal growth and bacteria such as Staphylococcus aureus, Candida albicans, Salmonella enterica, and E. coli that may cause severe illness.

2. Wild Forest Honey:

Honeycomb honey is also known as honeydew honey. This is made from the honeydew on the trees and plants that grow in the core of the forests. Only the bees that make their nests in these remote forest areas are capable of collecting this honey dew and then making the wild forest honey. The bees collect this nectar out of really rare and medicinal herbs and wildly growing flora that can be found in the deepest corners of a forest. This honey is devoid of any sort of pesticides, insecticides, chemical liquids etc. that is usually applied in the farms; hence one can be sure that raw wild forest honey is actually all natural, raw and packed with rare elements of the forest. It has a much bolder and stronger a fragrance as much as the flavour. An interesting fact about this kind of honey is that the taste and medicinal properties in the honey change according to the seasons, which is so exciting because you are possibly consuming the best compounds that is in the forest during a particular season and the honey is different every time!

Health benefits of consuming this form of honey:

• With every season, there are new plants that grow during that time. New plants mean new nutrients that can be found in the honey. Hence you get the best nutrients of the forest through an insect that is the procurer of all things good.
• Wild forest honey is also a very powerful antioxidant no matter which season it has been sourced from. Anti-oxidants such as ascorbic acid, flavonoids, selenium, and catalase and glucose oxidase are packed in this honey.
• These antioxidants are proven to be effective in maintaining a healthy heart health, a few kinds of cancer and also have skin tightening agents.
• This honey is rich in Thiamine, Riboflavin, copper, calcium, manganese, iron, potassium, Pantothenic Acid and zinc.

3. Khasi Mandarin honey:

Khasi Mandarin is a truly unique variety of honey. The bees are made to nest near the fields where Khasi Mandarin fruits grow, and in the season when the fruits are ripe or even otherwise, the bees reach the plant to help pollinate it. When they do so, the nectar that they procure from the plant is filled with natural flavours of the Khasi mandarin along with its nutrients. Hence comes to existence, the purest form of infused honey that is not man-made. This process of natural infusion of mandarin in the honey is what makes it so rare and so sought after.

Health benefits of consuming this form of honey:

• The honey contains concentrated and very effective forms of the Vitamins A and B and a very high amount of Vitamin C that works well in preventing infections, bacterial growth, removing free radicals from the body and finally supporting a good skin health.
• Khasi Mandarin Honey is also effective for maintaining a good immune system. Did you know that the Khasi Mandarin Honey was in really high demand that the supply almost got over during the pandemic.

4. Multi floral raw honey:

By definition, Multi floral honey is basically honey that is not mono floral honey. The natural multi floral honey is procured by bees when they suckle on many kinds of flowers in the spring season. The honey is made from gathering the nectar of many different kinds of flowers. The colour, taste, and the strength of flavour of the honey depend on the flowers the bees have visited. It is also possible that when you buy raw multi floral honey from the north east, each jar of honey may taste different.

Health benefits of consuming this form of honey:

• Multi floral honey in its raw form has a high amount of pollen which is a powerful anti-inflammatory agent.
• This honey is also used widely to cure sore throats, cough, cold or even fever.
• This raw honey is mostly used in traditional medicine to aid digestion and weight loss.
• It is also used as a nutritional tonic to increase metabolism and to aid nutrient deficiency.

5. Rock bee honey:

Rock bee honey is the honey that is made by the Apis Dorsata species of bees that are known as the Rock bee. They owe this name to the fact that these bees nest and built their hives in rocky cliffs on high altitudes.  They even retrieve the nectar from flowers that grow on really high up in the Himalayas in those altitudes. The region that they procure nectar from gives it added nutrients and medicinal value because of which this honey is popular.

Health benefits of consuming this form of Honey:

• This honey like every other raw honey from the north east is known for its anti-inflammatory effects, anti-microbial effects and Cancer fighting agents.
• It works great to heal wounds, ulcers and infected areas of the body. It is a medicine to people affected by arthritis and joint pains.

6. Pure Local Honey:

This is the kind of honey that the bee keepers procure from their bee farm where they practice apiculture. The bee farmers use bees that can be easily domesticated even though they are a wild species. They farm these bees in a large farm nearby crop cultivations so that the bees don’t have to travel too far to procure this honey. They visit these natural organic farms and small forests to procure the nectar and then make raw honey. Now after the bees make the honey, it is upon the bee keeper to either process the honey or package the honey without processing. The processing includes heating the honey which kills more than half of the nutrients in the honey and that is not a very ideal way of consuming honey. Even local honey is basically raw honey and must not be processed.

Health Benefits of consuming this form of honey:

• Pure local honey is a powerhouse of phytonutrients. Phytonutrients are a compound found in the plant that helps a plant keep safe from any sort of external harm. For example there are certain phytonutrients in a plant that is effective in keeping certain kinds of insects away from the plant and there are other phytonutrients that are capable of saving the plant from harmful ultraviolet radiation as well. The pure local honey is full of these kinds of phytonutrients that can be found mostly in cultivated crops and plants.
• Apart from that this honey is also a great agent to combat fungal infections and bacterial infections on cuts or wounds.
• These elements of honey that help honey aid human health, get completely destroyed when it goes through processing. This is why we at NE Origins do not advocate the processing of honey in its raw form.

This was all about the kinds of raw honey that can be found or sourced from raw honey in the North Eastern Region of India. We encourage people to try and use these amazing varieties of raw honey from the North East. If you are new we are sure raw honey will change your understanding and use of commercial honey as a primary choice of health for your family.