The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1908-07-25
HONEY, REAL AND IMITATION.
Ways of Determining Adulteration and
Flower Sources.


Pure honey one Of the most variable
OF food materials--is derived solely from
the sweet fluid collected from the nee,
taries of flowers and prepared by the
honey.bee. The fact that honey has
been actually collected and stored by
bees, however. does not make il pure =
lees often ill their cells with molasses,
honey dew, or the jucies of fruits; i'm
deed they almost always gather varying
amounts Of the emulation Of plants other
than nectar What then is pure" hon
ley? Says writer In the London Ian.
Get:
Chemically considered, the ideal hon
ey is concentrated solution OF invert
sugar-that is, OF dextrose and levtlose
in equal proportions, with traces of for.
mic acid, heterogeneous bodies, dextrin,
and other organic substances. Owing to
the presence OF impurities so generally
introduced by the bees, much difficulty
| il found in attempting to set up suit
able standard Of purity for honey as
found in commerce, The difficulty is in
creased by the common practice OF arti-
Totally feeding bees and by the addition
OF adulterants. The historical and liter.
airy associations Of honey and its value
as a food and medicine lends interest
to an important investigation into its
composition and analysis that has re-.
Gently been undertaken by G. A. Browne
and w j. Young Of the United States
department OF agriculture. AT the pres
cnt time the chief adulterants of honey
are cane sugar, starch.sirup or commss
cial glucose, and inveTt sugar. 1t is in
teresting to note that bees readily feed
upon cane.sugar, but they often refuse
to take glucose strip. The latter adul-
terant is added to natural honey for the
double purpose Of chcapening the prod
uct and preventing crystalization. The
nectar Of flowers contains from 10 to so
per cent. of water but honey contains
only about 20 per cent. The reduction
is effected partly by the bees exposing
tht nectar in thin layers to the action
of current of air produced by the fan
ming of their wings and partly by pro-
cess of reorganization, the nectar being
continually thrown out from the honey
sac on the partially doubled tongue and
then drawn in again until, by the move
ment of the air and the heat Of the hive,
the nectar is sufficiently concentrated to
be deposited in the cells of the comb.
Another change OF considerable import
anee, which takes place while the nectar
is in the honey-sac of the bee and also
probably during evaporation and storage
in the comb, is the conversion of over So
per cent. of the sucrose originally pres
ent in the nectar through the action of
an engine secreted by the bee The
nectar is further modified by the bee by
the introduction Of minute quantity
OF formic acid which is not present in
the original nectar. This acid is sup.
posed to act as a preservative and to
prevent fermentation"
The chemical investigation of honey |
may be supplemented, the author tells
us, by microseopical examination. The
genuineness of a sample may be indi. |
Gated by the number of pollen grains |
present. BY counting these it is posi-.
bic to ascertain approximately the
amount OF glucose or other adulterant |
A study Of the size, shape and markings |
Of pollen grains enables the analyst to
determine the flowers from which the
honey was collected, and thus the state
ments on the label regarding the source |
can be verihed.-Literary Digest