(no subject)

[ewx]

So people say that "local honey" helps against hayfever. I don't like honey anyway (though I do like mead...) but this got me wondering.

Presumably the logic is that the bees that make the honey will have pollen from local flowers on them, and that some of this will get into the honey, and that this somehow causes you not to react to the pollen when you encounter it in your eyes and nose; and that it has to be "local" so that the mix of kinds of plants is right for where you are.

But surely, the plants that use bees to spread their pollen won't be spraying it into the air?

Can anyone clarify this (either regarding the final question or the whole thing)?

Comments

[juliet]

I am not a botanist, but... I assume that plants use a mixture of ways to spread their pollen, rather than necessarily specialising. Also, pollen has to be very light and loosely-attached in order to cling onto the legs of the bees, so it'll also be easy for it to get into the air (and it'll tend to float around, rather than settling, once there).

[sobrique.livejournal.com]

IIRC mass market honey is very often made up of a single type of plant. Usually something like clover, because that has a good yield, and rich gloopy sort of fluidity.

Local honey is made up of a mix of ingredients, from the local area, and so has the advantage of 'exposure' to pollen, that's not in the nasal passages, reducing the hystamine response (again, IIRC).

Oil seed rape for example is very good for producing large amounts of pollen and nectar, but it's terrible for honey, because it has a tendancy to cause crystalisation.

I believe the majority of plants use insects/birds to transport pollen - the quantity dispersed in the air is actually relatively small, and triggered because pollen it typically rather 'dry and dusty'.

[ex-lark-asc.livejournal.com]

THere's also the mowing effect :)

[antinomy.livejournal.com]

The biomedical reasoning, as I understand it, it about the way the immune system treats potential stimulants depending on their route of administration - there's a built-in tolerising system related to the gut, because being allergic to your food is bad, which doesn't exist for particles that are inhaled and where the exposure is to the respiratory mucosa. Local honey will contain pollen from local plants (not necessarily much use if you're a grass-pollen allergic, granted) and application of these to the gut might maybe perhaps push them into the tolerisation system and make you non-reactive to them on your other mucosal surfaces too. It's not *entirely* far-fetched, but I wouldn't be giving up on the anithistamine prescription just yet!

HTH :)

[mobbsy.livejournal.com]

You can clarify honey with powdered seeds, egg whites, or by heating and filtering.

HTH.

[gerald_duck]

An obvious problem: "local" to where, precisely?

This is especially relevant to me since I've just spent four days exposed to a lot of pollen down in Dorset and Wiltshire, but would presumably have ingested honey local to Cambridgeshire.

[mhk.livejournal.com]

The simple answer is that it is probably an old wives' tale.

You are right about the pollen. The plants that expect their pollen to be spread on the wind produce it in copious quantities and don't bother too much with attractive flowers and those are usually the pollens involved in hay fever. cp grass. Others make pretty flowers and place their pollen in an area of the flower where it will stick on insects' legs, and the parts for fertilising in similarly reachable areas where it will rub off again. The honey made by bees is mainly composed of the nectar provided for them as a treat in return for pollen carrying duties, although there would almost certainly be some loose pollen in and around it too and I believe this also produces some of the nourishment bee sprogs need. But I'm not a botanist either, so I am not too sure about the amount of pollen that ends up in honey.