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Honeydew honey - how it differs from the nectar?
Bees
prepare honey dew of sweet liquid (juice) they collect on certain
plants such as oak, maple, willow, pine, spruce, fir, elm, pear,
cherries and more. This sweet liquid is called mana, and whence it receives is called honey dew. Elimination is by some species of insects, mainly aphids, which are parasitic on the leaves and young shoot of the plants. These insects feed on the sweet juice, which suck the plants. It was found that where breakthroughs are made for sucking the juice for a long time then continues to flow sweet liquid. Furthermore,
the digestive system of these insect species is specially arranged, so
that not all of them ingested fluid passes through the stomach. Esophagus develops in their anus tube, forming the so-called. filter chamber. It
allows excess sugar to pass straight through the anal opening outwards,
and protein and other nutrients necessary for the nutrition of the
parasite is retained by the filter chamber and enters the stomach where
it is absorbed.
Chemically mana significantly different from the floral nectar. There are also differences in the chemical, physical and biological properties of nectar and honeydew honey.
Freshly isolated mildew is a clear and transparent liquid, which darkens over time. In long-term storage its color becomes almost black. Color
change depends on the type of plants and insects, separators, by
developing it microflora from the time of collection, etc..
In its chemical composition is different from mana floral nectar. It contains an average of 60% water. Sugars are an essential part of which most are sucrose, glucose and Fruit. Mana
is rich in high molecular weight sugars such as trehalose, raffinose
and especially melitsitoza which is typical of her and promote
crystallization. Especially there are many dextrin. In the honey dew they are about 4-6 times more than in the nectar and act contrary to melitsitozata - prevent crystallization. This explains the difficulty of crystallization of honey dew, despite its greater density. Bees learn dextrin because separate enzymes that degrade them more simple sugars.
