# Applicability of Honey on Silkworms (_Bombyx mori_) and Quality Improvement of Its Biomaterials
## 1 Introduction  
Honey represents one of the most valued natural products that exhibit a great impact on human nutrition and health. It has been used since ancient times in various forms to sweeten and flavor different types of foods [1]. Furthermore, honey has been used for therapeutic purposes in order to treat or to prevent several clinical conditions, such as dermatitis, diabetes or cancer [2]. Honey possesses a wide range of curative properties due to the presence of more than 200 bioactive compounds. By using flower nectar, honeybees perform considerable work in order to obtain this appreciable natural product [3]. The nectar source dictates the physical properties of honey, such as flavor, odor and color. Furthermore, the geographical origins also exhibit an impact on honey's features. It has also been shown that the floral source and the geographical origin regulate the most important therapeutic effect of honey, specifically the antimicrobial activity [1]. Moreover, honey represents an important alternative agent against antibiotic resistant bacteria. Hydrogen peroxide (H\({}_{2}\)O\({}_{2}\)) is the main compound that is responsible for the antibacterial activity. However, several types of honey have this prominent feature, even if the catalase neutralizes their hydrogen peroxide, suggesting that there are more active compounds that generate antibacterial activity [2,4]. In this direction, [PERSON] et al. highlighted the key role played by heather honey against several microorganisms that represent a threat for human health. Besides the content of hydrogen peroxide, heather honey exhibits antibacterial activity due to its low acidity, the presence of polyphenolic compounds and due to its high osmotic concentration [5]. As insects that are native to China, mulberry feeding silkworms (_Bombyx mori_) represent key players for the global economy. _Bombyx mori_ is of great importance due to silk production. The silk gland of _Bombyx mori_ exhibits three different regions, namelythe anterior silk gland (ASG), the middle silk gland (MSG) and the posterior silk gland (PSG) [6]. Silk is an organic polymer with a wide range of extraordinary properties [7], such as elasticity, high strength, and toughness, but also displays an extraordinary level of biocompatibility with human organisms. Regarding the composition of silk, it contains two main proteins, fibroin and sericin, as well as an alcohol-soluble organic matter, in small amounts. The sericin is synthesized in the MSG, and the fibroin in the PSG [6]. Morphologically, silk involves two fibroin threads that are held together by sericin [8; 9]. Owning a wide range of extraordinary features, silk fibroin is currently used to develop various biomaterials with a great impact for the medical field [10]. In this direction, silkworms exhibit a great advantage; specifically, they have a short-term replication cycle (with an incubation period of 14 days) which includes several phases of growth, namely, egg, larvae, pupa, moth [11]. Presently, extraordinary advancements in the medical field are being made and by considering this situation, there is a great need for affordable sustainable biomaterials. The classic synthetic materials that are used in the medical and pharmaceutical field do not display the same remarkable physical and biologic properties as silk. Currently, silk exhibits numerous applications in these fields; for instance, it has been used for decades as surgical mesh and suture thread [12]. In order to overcome the limitations of polymeric synthetic biomaterials, there have been described several silk-based biomaterials (Table 1). Silk production is not the only reason for which _Bombyx mori_ receives great attention from the scientific community. _Bombyx mori_ plays a pivotal role as a model organism due to its remarkable characteristics [11; 17; 18]. There are numerous studies that highlight the advantages of using silkworms as a model organism in life science.