Amazing Facts...Honey Throughout History and Around the World
1. Honey has been delighting humans for more then 40 centuries. In ancient Egypt, taxes were paid with it, while
in early Greece and Rome honey symbolized fertility, love, and beauty.
2. To the ancients, honey was a source of health, a sign of purity and a symbol of strength and virility.
3. Early man considered bees mysterious and magical creatures because their amazing organized labor produced honey - a
"nectar for the gods".
4. In Greek mythology, it is said that cupid dipped his arrows in honey to fill the lovers heart with sweetness.
5. In 50 BC, the Romans painted pictures with melted dyed beeswax.
6. The earliest illustration we have of honey being gathered is around 15,000 years old and appears in a painting
on the walls of a rock shelter in eastern Spain.
7. In the early centuries B.C., the Ancient Greeks made little honey cakes from flour, honey and oil, sometimes baked with
fresh flowers inside them, as supplications to their gods. They considered honey to be an important food as well as
a healing medicine.
8. The ancient Greeks minted coins with bees on them.
9. Democritus (460-370 BC), Greek philosopher and physician, chose a diet rich in honey and lived until he was 109
years old.
10. In the first century A.D., Apicus, a wealthy Roman gourmet, wrote a series of books in which more than half
the recipes included honey.
11. Physicians in ancient Rome used honey to help their patients fall asleep.
12. Honey was the most used medicine in ancient Egypt. Of the more than 900 medical remedies we know about for that
time, more than 500 were honey based.
13. The Egyptians kept their bees in tall, cylindrical hives; similar hives are still used in remote parts of Egypt
today.
14. For thousands of years, honey and fruits were the only sweeteners in Europe.
15. Napoleon used the bee as a symbol of his empire after his coronation in 1804. It stood for industry, efficiency
and productivity. Also emblematic of immortality and resurrection, the bee was chosen to link the new dynasty to the very
origins of France. Golden bees (cicadas really) were discovered in 1653 in Tournai in the tomb of Childeric I (father of Clovis)
who founded the Merovingian dynasty in 457. They were considered to be the oldest emblem of the sovereigns of France.
16. In 1984, honeybees constructed a honeycomb in zero gravity as part of an experiment on a space shuttle.
17. In 1984, a backstage worker at the Paris opera established one of the most unusually sited beehives on the roof of
the opera house. The "opera bees" gather their nectar as they visit flowers all over the city of Paris. The fruits
of their labors are on sale in the souvenir shop of the opera.
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Madu lebah sudah dikenali sejak zaman Firaun yang memrintah Mesir pada tahun 300 sebelum Masihi hingga ke tamadun Parsi,
Greed dan Rom, sebagai satu cara penjagaan kesihatan. Menurut sejarah Islam, penggunaan madu lebah dalam perubatan sangat
masyhur dan bertepatan dengan Firman Allah dalam ayat 68 hingga 69 surah An-Nahl yang bermaksud;
“Madu
penyembuh segala penyakit manusia dan Al Quran penyembuh segala penyakit hati”
Di Eropah, ada kesatuan
diberi nama Apitheraphy, diasaskan oleh Profesor Bernard Descottes, Perancis yang menggunakan produk madu lebah bagi penjagaan
kesihatan.
Di Timur Tengah, masyarakat Arab tidak dapat dipisahkan dengan pengambilan madu lebah sebagai minuman kesihatan harian.
Bagi masyarakat Cina, amalan memberi madu lebah kepada anak sejak kecil sudah lama dipraktikkan.
Dalam persekitaran masyarakat berteknologi tinggi dan sentiasa sibuk sekarang, keperluan kepada makanan seimbang dan selamat
adalah penting, malangnya kebanyakan pihak mengabaikan keperluan itu dengan mengambil jalan mudah dengan hanya bergantung
kepada makanan dan minuman segera yang kurang berkhiasiat.
Oleh itu, madu disyorkan menjadi makanan tambahan kepada kita disebabkan khasiatnya yang tidak ternilai.
Namun begitu, ledakan pembangunan dan perkembangan pesat sains dan teknologi telah menimbulkan pelbagai kesangsian terhadap
keaslian produk madu yang ada di pasaran.
Kini timbul pula masalah bagaimana hendak mencari madu yang benar-benar tulen, mentah dan bebas daripada campuran bahan-bahan
lain.
Bukan setakat kesukaran untuk mendapatkan produk madu lebah asli tetapi juga pencarian jenis spesies lebah liar yang mengumpul
madunya dari sumber-sumber tidak terhad.
Jika lebah yang diternak dari ladang-ladang yang sumber madunya agak terhad kepada jenis bunga-bunga tertentu sahaja mungkin
kualitinya tidak sebaik madu lebah liar dan harganya adalah lebih murah.
Jika pengguna tersilap pilih mungkin mereka boleh terbeli madu yang dicampurkan dengan bahan-bahan lain dan ini
akan mengakibatkan kemudaratan kepada sesetengah penghidap penyakit,
Ada sesetengah pengguna sanggup mencari madu asli dengan berbelanja besar bagi tujuan tersebut dan percaya atau tidak harga
madu asli di Timur Tengah boleh mencecah sehingga RM1,000 sekilogram.
Mungkin sudah menjadi amalan masyarakat kita hari ini yang inginkan produk murah dan kesempatan itu telah diambil oleh
pengusaha madu dengan mengaut keuntungan besar memasarkan madu yang telah dicampur dan khasiatnya bukan lagi seperti madu
lebah mentah (tulen).
Sumber: http://www.madu-lebah.com
