In a recent thread, I read the following:
I have heard elsewhere that honey really does last an extraordinarily long time before spoiling. However, I am wondering about the response.
Why would a heavily sugared substance keep well? Isn’t sugar an ideal fuel for nearly any living organism. I would think that sugary things would spoil quickly, as sugar can be metabolized by almost anything. Do microorganisms not metabolize sugar in it’s simplest forms, or is there another explanation?
Actually I have a jar of honey in the pantry which I bought six months ago and which has subsequently crystallized into a lumpy sugary mess which certainly can’t be spread on crumpets, so I don’t agree with this “honey can’t spoil” bit.
But as far as honey not growing mould, fungus etc., I guess it’s an osmotic effect, that is glucose easily passes through cell wall membranes and thus for simple cell organisms such as bacteria, fungi, my husband, the effect of a high concentration of glucose outside the cell is to draw all the water out of it thus destroying the organism. Such solutions are called hypertonic. It’s an important issue, for example when patients are given IV fluid it is usually isotonic (or the same osmolarity). Give the patient hypertonic fluid and you massively dehydrate tissue extracellular fluid, give the patient hypotonic fluid and you flood the tissues. Why then doesn’t a barley sugar destroy the cells lining your gut, I hear you ask. I guess it’s compensated for by dilution with gastric juices, peristalsis and effective glucose transport mechanisms quickly decreasing local concentrations.
Your crystallized honey isn’t spoiled; just put the jar in a pan of boiling water for 2-3 minutes, and it will reconstitute, good as new.
Well, since pennys gave you the dumbed-down, simplistic version, I’ll give you the Real Science:
Just kidding. That was very informative, Pennys.
If I’m not mistaken, bees do sting the honey a little bit, right? Or maybe they do it before it’s honey, i.e. while it’s still nectar. Is this a big part of why it doesn’t spoil? Or does it only make a difference while it’s still in the hive?
I don’t think bees can sting anything a little bit, Boris.
The bee who stings dies.
Most stinging critters squirt some iritant or toxin into you
but retain whatever hypodermic injecting organ they use, develop more juice and live to sting again. With the bee, the sting is like a barbed harpoon. When it stabs you, it can’t retract the sting, which is thus ripped out of it’s abdomen. Dead bee.
This heroic self sacrifice makes sense in evolutionary “selfish gene” terms because all bees in a hive are like genetically identical twins (? certainly close siblings anyway).
Minor nitpick: I thought osmotic effect happens when water can pass through a menbrane but the dissolved molecules cannot?
Honey contains natural antiseptic properties which act as a preservative. Honey over 2,000 years old, found in an Egyptian pyramid, was still edible (although very granular).
In fact, because of those antiseptic properties, health authorities in Australia are using it to treat burns and infections. They call it medi-honey. See this link for more info:
http://www.drweil.com/archiveqa/0,2283,1757,00.html
For basic honey information, try:
IIRC, what really happens is that the water inside the cell is drawn out by the osmotic pressure differential. This desicates the cell & kills it.
Thanks pennys, I totally forgot about osmosis. I should have remembered that from High School Bio class a few years ago.