Physicochemical and Microbiological Properties of Honey from North East Nigeria

Honey is the natural sweet substance produced by honeybees from the nectar of blossoms or from the secretion of living parts of plants or excretions of plant sucking insects on the living parts of plants, which honeybees collect, transform and combine with specific substances of their own, store and leave in the honey comb to ripen and mature [1,2]. It is a sticky and viscous solution with a content of 80–85% carbohydrate (mainly glucose and fructose), 15–17% water, 0.1–0.4% protein, 0.2% ash and minor quantities of amino acids, enzymes and vitamins as well as other substances like phenolic antioxidants [3-7]. The minor constituents are known to have distinctive nutritional or medicinal properties [7] while the major constituents are nearly the same in all honey samples. The precise chemical composition and physical properties of natural honeys differ according to the plant species on which the bees forage [7-11] and also according to climatic conditions and vegetations which are important factors that can affect the various properties of honey. The northeast sub-region of Nigeria, which lies within 9o–14oN and 8o–15oE, consists of approximately one quarter of the land mass of Nigeria [12] and comprises of six states (Adamawa, Bauchi, Borno, Gombe, Taraba and Yobe States) characterized by humid, semi-arid and arid climates. The production and marketing of bee products, especially honey is a well known business in the subregion [13] but information about the qualities of the products is scare.