Düzce University Beekeeping Research, Development and Application Center Director Assoc. Dr. Meral Kekeçoğlu said that the sale of bitter honey, which caused a bear to faint the previous day, is prohibited, and that it can have an effect on people up to cardiac arrest. Kekeçoğlu stated that bitter honey is good for diseases such as asthma, so it should be used under the supervision of a doctor.
IT MUST BE CONSUMED BY DOCTOR’S CONTROL
Düzce University Beekeeping Research, Development and Application Center Director Assoc. Dr. Meral Kekeçoğlu said that the sale of rhododendron honey is prohibited by the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, and those who will consume it should consume it under the supervision of a doctor.
“IF MAN EATED IT WOULD BE MUCH Worse”
Providing information about rhododendron honey, popularly known as bitter honey or crazy honey, Assoc. Dr. Kekeçoğlu said, “This honey is made by collecting nectar from the rhododendron plant. It is known among the people that if you eat rhododendron honey, that is, crazy honey, it will not do anything. It is even known to be very good because it has a blood pressure lowering effect. This information is absolutely wrong. Because in areas where the rhododendron is very dense, if the bee uses the rhododendron nectar too much, there is a poison called grayanotoxin in this honey. This poison can pass into honey in large quantities. If the poison has passed into the honey in large quantities, yes, we can see the symptoms we see in the bear. Since the bear is large in body, it has tolerated it. But if a person ate it, we could see much worse situations,” he said.
MAY CAUSE HEART BEATS TO STOP
Assoc. Dr. Kekeçoğlu pointed out that honey causes the heartbeat to stop. When such patients go to an emergency, they may encounter stages that lead to a pacemaker implantation. I would like to make an explanation for the case that a spoon does nothing when eaten. The honey produced by each beekeeper may not have the same amount of grayanotoxin. If one beekeeper produces 1 milligram, another beekeeper produces 32-40 milligrams of grayanotoxin, for example. Therefore, since it is not known, the approach that does nothing when a spoon of honey is eaten is not a correct approach. Because when the honey with a high amount of grayanotoxin is eaten, results such as fainting, hallucinations, slowing or even stopping of the heartbeat appear, as in the bear.
ROSE HONEY IS LEGALLY PROHIBITED TO SALE
Assoc. Dr. Meral Kekeçoğlu stated that the sale of rhododendron honey is prohibited by the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, and said:
“The types and amounts of grayanotoxin can vary in rhododendron honey. It is not possible to understand this when you see it, look at it or test it. We hear it in public. There are sayings like it hurts my throat, this honey is too heavy. But no matter what honey is in honey, we need to look at the results of the analysis, not the rhetoric. First of all, whether or not the edible rhododendron honey is from that plant flora by pollen analysis, it has grayanotoxin 1, 2 and 3 in it. It is necessary to determine which grayanotoxin is 1, 2 or 3 of these. Can we experience similar effects when eaten in humans as in this bear? Yes. For this reason, it is a type of honey that has been banned by the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry. A type of honey that is legally forbidden to sell under normal conditions. This is because effects similar to those that occur when a bear eats it.”
IT IS GOOD FOR ASTHMA PATIENTS
Stating that rhododendron honey is used in some diseases, Assoc. Dr. Kekeçoğlu said, “However, this does not mean that we should completely remove the rhododendron honey from the market and never be sold. Rhododendron honey has really good aspects and benefits. It can be used in hypertension patients, especially asthma patients, upper respiratory tract infection patients. However, a rhododendron honey must be consumed under the control of a doctor, tested, labeled and offered for medical use. I want to emphasize that it would not be right to buy and consume from random beekeepers.”