Tualang Honey: A Sweet Remedy from Nature

Abstract

Honey is a sweet and sticky biological liquid that is produced by bees following the collection from plant nectars. Honey is enjoyed as a popular food product across the globe for its sweetness, flavour, and texture. The benefits offered by honey as food and medicine to mankind are immense with its virtues being documented in ancient religious, medical, and secular texts. The source and composition of honey greatly influence its biochemical properties while the therapeutic value of honey has been relatively associated with its antioxidant properties. Tualang honey is a Malaysian multi-floral jungle honey produced by the rock bee (Apis dorsata). Although there are various types of honey being marketed globally such as Manuka honey, less attention was given to Tualang honey as a commercially available food product. Also, Tualang honey is less extensively studied and characterised, unlike Manuka honey. At present, there is a growing interest in the use of honey as a nutraceutical and therapeutic agent to develop new methods of treatment. Therefore, this paper narratively reviews the selected functional and therapeutic properties, such as the antioxidant, anticancer, antimicrobial, antinociceptive, and hepatoprotective activity of the Tualang honey suggesting its use as potential functional food or functional food ingredient.