In Ayurveda, Mahdu (Honey) is considered a medicine which can be used for the treatment of various ailments e.g. obesity, eyes problems, skin problems, diabetes, etc. Honey is used along with many ayurvedic products to increase their results or efficacy. It is advisable to use honey in fresh form for better results and however, old honey loses its many properties or health benefits over the period still remains the healthy products. Honey is a purely natural sweetener which is produced by bees from nectar of different types of flowers available in region. The bees take flower nectar and put it in its saliva and enzymes. Thereafter, they pour it in the hive to ripen.

Honey is believed to be the first sweet food tasted by the ancient Indian. There are about 500 flower plants which are source of honey and at least seven species of honey bees. Because the type of honey depends upon the species of the bees as well as the plants, and flowers they use, it can vary significantly in flavor and color, from clear and colorless to dark amber. Some major varieties of Natural Honey available in India are as under:

• Eucalyptus Honey,
• Mustard Honey,
• Sunflower Honey,
• Karanj Honey
• Himalayan Honey,
• Lychee Honey,
• Acacia Honey,
• Wild Flora Honey,
• Multi-Flora Honey

• Weight Management
• For the treatment of diabetes
• Effective for eye diseases
• Help to better digestion
• Honey is used in the Cough & Cold
• Help in glowing up Skin and skin diseases

Though unprocessed honey is regarded the best form of honey but its self-life is very low.

Now a day, it is very difficult to identify and differentiate between real honey and fake honey.  In developed countries i.e. USA, Europe, Australia, one can trust on the label of Pure Honey. But in India, honey are sold at a very cheap prices which actually doesn’t cover its cost and therefore, manufacturer are mixing sugar syrup with honey or imported sugar syrup with honey or purely sugar syrup is sold in the market.

You need to try different methods to judge whether your honey is pure or not. Here are few ways which will help you

1. Check label – Sometimes, manufacturer mentions that whether additive or flavors as a part ingredient.
2. Fragrance or essence smell – The smell of honey depends on species of flower or vector and can’t give strong and similar smell on all time. If your honey gives similar fragrance and strong smell all the time, this may not be the real honey and you should be extra cautious.
3. Very cheap price or deep discount –Honey is expensive food and therefore, manufacturer starts adulteration of honey by adding cheap sweeteners to increase volume and reduce costs. The manufacturer of impure honey generally offers a very huge discount all the time because honey prepared from sugar syrup is very cheap in costing, and they can afford to given big discount.
4. Vinegar Test – Mix a tablespoon of honey into some water and add 2-3 drops of vinegar. If it gets foamy then it is adulterated honey not pure.
5. Paper Test – Put some honey onto a piece of paper. It is diluted if patch created by honey spreads on paper.
6. Water Test – Fill up the water into glass and drop honey it. Natural honey will not dissolve. If you add 2-3 drops of iodine to the solution it will not turn blue.
7. Flammable Test – Try to light a match after dipping it into honey. If the honey is real then match is lightening easily and not begin hiss straight away since real honey flammable. If the match cannot burn than the honey is not pure and contains additives or sugar syrup.
8. Take a steel piece of wire and heat it. Then, you insert wire into the honey. The real honey will stick to the wire, and not flow back into the jar.