Honey/Royal Jelly (Feng Wang)

Botanical Name: Mel (The Greek name is “melis.”)

Considered a food of the saints and a food to nourish the soul and uplift the spirits, honey is also used medicinally to help bind other herbs together into pills and tablets as well as sweeten the taste of very bitter herbs. Royal Jelly, the bitter substance made to feed the queen bee, is so nutritious it is considered to be almost a complete food in itself.

Watch a short video, from Ann Christensen, Founder and Creator of White Rabbit Institute of Healing™ – Eeeeeew! Honey for Wounds?!

Remember to check with your doctor before trying new medicines or herbal remedies, especially if you are taking other medication where drug interactions are possible.

Below is an overview of Honey/Royal Jelly (Feng Wang), combining the best of Western Science, Oriental Medicine, Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), Shamanism, Folklore, and a wide range of healing modalities. Gain a balanced and thorough understanding of the healing properties of honey / royal jelly.

Parts Most Frequently Used: Honey, Royal Jelly

Flavors/Temps: Honey – Sweet, Neutral. Royal Jelly – Bitter, Neutral.

Caution: Honey – none noted. Some people are allergic to royal jelly.

Key Constituents: Honey – Carbohydrates, Monosaccharides: Fructose, Glucose, Maltose, and Sucrose. Vitamin B1, Vitamin B2, Minerals, Magnesium, Manganese, Potassium, Phosphorous, Zinc, Calcium, Enzymes, Electrolytes. Royal Jelly – Includes compounds found in honey plus: 67% Water, 12.5% Crude Protein, Amino Acids (virtually all of the essential amino acids), Vitamins A, B12, E and C, Pyridoxine hydrochloride, and a whole list of other additional nutrients as well.

History/Folklore: Honey has long been used in cooking, baking, drinks, alcohol and mixed with medicinal herbs in tablet and pill forms by many cultures worldwide. Honey is a gourmet product of the French island of Corsica, with its own certification, in the same way that champagne is certified in France.

The viscosity of honey is impacted by both temperature and water content. The higher the water content, the more easily honey flows.

Because honey contains electrolytes in the form of acids and minerals it has some degree of electrical conductivity. Honey also can affect polarized light by rotating the polarization plane. Fructose will give a negative rotation and glucose a positive rotation. This overall rotational effect is used to measure the ratio of the mixture. Also like all sugar compounds, honey will caramelize if heated sufficiently, becoming darker in color. Unlike many other liquids, honey has very poor thermal conductivity and will therefore take a long time to reach thermal equilibrium. Heating honey is usually done on the lowest temperatures and for the shortest amounts of time possible.

Polyfloral honey is made from the nectar of many flowers and is often also called wildflower honey. Monofloral honey is made from the nectar of typically only one type of flower, such as sage, honeysuckle, clover, thistle or orange blossom honeys.

Raw honey is described as “honey as it exists in the beehive.” Pasteurized honey involves a process that destroys the yeast found in honey, extending its shelf life and making it smoother. Further filtration removes air bubbles and other impurities that might still be left in the honey. Raw honey is considered more nutritious, containing approximately 22 amino acids, 31 different minerals and a wide variety of vitamins and enzymes. Raw honey contains up to 4.3 times more antioxidants than processed honey.

For thousands of years honey has been used to clean wounds, promote endurance, as well as being a wonderful natural cure for burns and cuts as it absorbs moisture from the air and promotes healing. Its antibacterial properties prevent infections and help it function as an anti-inflammatory agent, reducing pain, swellings and even scarring.

If you are suffering from a hangover from drinking too much alcohol, use a honey and water mixture as honey is gentle on the stomach and its sugars help speed up oxidation of alcohol by the liver, acting as a “sobering” agent. (You can also mix honey, orange juice and a bit of yogurt as an effective remedy as well.)

A mixture of hot water, honey and lemon juice will help soothe a sore throat, while preventing infection. A milk and honey mixture has long been used to help children (and adults!) to fall asleep at night.

Honey and cinnamon have long been used in China to treat hair loss and bad breath. It has also long been used as an agent for combining medicinal herbs into tablets. The mixture of herbs and honey are rolled into small balls and as the honey dries and hardens these become easy to take tablets. This blend can also help to burn belly fat by improving metabolism.

In China, honey harvested from different flower pollens is noted for having distinct properties. For example, honey made from coptis, loquat, and astragalus are better at dispelling Pathogenic Heat. Honey made from motherwort or wild rose are considered superior for supporting skin health. Orange and wolfberry honey will best help to moisten the lungs.

Royal Jelly is a fairly recent discovery. The Queen bee is known to live longer than all other bees in the hive. Common bees live about four to five months and the Queen bee lives for five to six years. This longevity is attributed to royal jelly. It is as close to a complete food as is possible. It contains a full range of amino acids (virtually all of the essential amino acids), vitamins A, B12, E and C, minerals, enzymes, thiamine hydrochloride, riboflavin, pyridoxine hydrochloride, pantothenic acid and a whole list of additional nutrients. As it feeds the Queen, it is recognized for its support of fertility, especially for women. This is supported by the findings of important female hormones in royal jelly.

It is very difficult to find pure royal jelly, most sources blend it with other products including honey, as pure royal jelly is quite bitter. Royal jelly can be found powdered or blended in tablet form. It is also popular in China to package it in liquid form in small individual vials often mixed with other tonic herbs. In this form people will often take one or two vials a day.