# Applicability of Honey on Silkworms (_Bombyx mori_) and Quality Improvement of Its Biomaterials
## 2 The Impact of Honey on _Bombyx mori_ Biological and Technological Traits  
Mulberry leaves are the only natural food source in terms of _Bombyx mori_ nonurishment. Mulberry leaves represent both the source of water and the source of nutrients necessary \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c} \hline \hline
**Synthetic Polymer** & \
\begin{tabular}{c} **Homologous Silk** \\ **Based Biomaterial** \\ \end{tabular} &
\begin{tabular}{c} **Advantages of Silk** \\ **Based Biomaterials** \\ \end{tabular} & **Reference** \\ \hline Metal-based & Silk microneedles & Controlled drug release & [13] \\ Gauze & Silk fibroin nanoparticles & Accelerated wound healing & [14] \\ Polypropylene & Fibroin & Increased cell adhesion & [15] \\  & Photo-cross-linkable & Higher-level affinity & [16] \\ Su8 & silk fibroin & towards neurons & [1] \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}
\end{table} 
Table 1: The advantage of using silk-based biomaterial compared to synthetic polymers. for growth and development stages [22]. The availability of the silkworms' nonrishment source is limited; specifically, it is available only in the spring-summer season. Due to the great potential of _Bombyx mori_ in sericulture, agriculture or in the pharmaceutical industry, the restricted availability of mulberry leaves represents a great impediment. In this regard, there have been described several artificial diets for _Bombyx mori_ in order to facilitate and to overcome the impediment of season-restricted rearing. The artificial diets are not climate-change impacted and are also pathogen-free. These two features have a significant impact on the use of silkworms in life science fields [23; 24]. Honey, as a natural sweetening agent, is mainly composed of water and several types of sugars, such as glucose, fructose and sucrose [25]. The composition of honey also involves a small proportion of vitamins, enzymes, amino acids, minerals or phenolic compounds [26; 27]. Regarding the enzymes that are found in honey, there are three key players, namely invertase, diastase and glucose oxidase. Of the three enzymes, the most outstanding is the invertase or the \(\alpha\)-glucosidase. Being an exo-carbohydrase, by converting sucrose, it generates two monosaccharides, specifically glucose and fructose [28; 29]. Recognizing honey's prominent effects based on its compounds, particularly due to the enzymes' presence, [PERSON] et al. carried out a study in order to analyze the impact of rearing silkworms with honey-dipped mulberry leaves. The authors closely observed the effects of a honey-enriched diet on larval growth. They also hypothesized that honey could have an impact on the silk cocoon yield. There were used two groups of _Bombyx mori_ larvae: one experimental group and one control group. The mulberry leaves received by the experimental group were dipped in advance in an aqueous solution that contained 2% honey. The treatment was applied for 4 days. Specifically, the larvae of silkworms received honey-dipped mulberry leaves on days 1, 3, 5 and 7, and on days 2, 4, 6 and 8, they received just mulberry leaves [30]. Surprisingly, in the first instance, after day 1, the silkworms included in the experimental group did not consume more mulberry leaves than the control group. Nevertheless, after days 3, 5 and 7, differences could be observed between the two groups. Specifically, the experimental group left fewer uneaten leaves than the control group, suggesting that _Bombyx mori_ has a predisposition for eating honey-enhanced leaves [30]. Taking into consideration the complex composition of honey and the beneficial effects that its compounds manifest on a large spectrum of disorders, including digestive diseases, one can assume its important role in _Bombyx mori_ nutritional aspects [31; 32]. In this direction, the results of the study showed that by adjoining honey with the mulberry leaves, the digestive capacity of the experimental group was better compared with the digestive function of the control group.