عسل و دیابت: چالش ها و موانع – جاده ای برای بهبودی Honey and diabetes mellitus: Obstacles and challenges – Road to be repaired

1. Introduction Honey is a sweet viscous substance made by honey bees using the nectar part of the flowers. Honey has various physical, physiological and chemical characteristics. The consumption of honey has a very long history among human beings. It has been used in numerous ancient cultures as a complete nourishing food, beverages as sweetening and flavoring agent as well as a remedy for many illnesses (Ismail et al., 2015). Since ancient times, honey has been known for its nutritive and therapeutic values. The global production of honey is approximately 1.20 million tons per annum (Bogdanov et al., 2008). China, Turkey, Argentina, Mexico and United States are the main makers of honey. The most important ingredient of honey is carbohydrates present in the form of monosaccharides, fructose, glucose and disaccharides, maltose and sucrose. The sweetness of honey is due to the presence of these ingredients. Furthermore, honey contains amino acids, vitamin B, Vitamin B6, Vitamin C, niacin, folic acid, minerals, iron, zinc and antioxidants (David Ball, 2007; Fatimah et al., 2013). Honey is commonly used as an anti-inflammatory, anti-oxidant and antibacterial agent (Noori et al., 2014). The health promoting characteristics of honey bee are mainly due to the presence of multiple metabolites including vitamins and essential minerals besides enzymes and co-enzymes. In principle, honey is a valuable supplement for a healthy population (Denisow and Denisow-Pietrzyk, 2016). Recent advances in research, literature highlight that honey has potential biological activities with promising health promoting properties (Muhammad et al., 2016). The data are limited and findings are inconclusive about the valuable impact of honey and generalization of honey samples from various geographical corners of the globe remain controversial especially in the metabolic compromised patients including diabetic patients. This study aimed to investigate the role of honey in diabetic patients.