REGULATION OF THE STRUCTURE OF HONEY DURING ITS LONG-TERM STORAGE

Abstract

The article describes a new method of treating crystallised honey and the characteristics of the obtained liquid honey stored for a long period of at least 1 year. It has been shown that a new method of low- temperature isothermal accelerated processing in a microwave reactor MWR-SPR allows melting crystallised honey to the liquid state. This accelerates its decrystallisation by 250 times compared to the known method that involves heat transfer. The properties of crystals of solid and liquid honey have been investigated and their structures have been compared after rapid low-temperature, isothermal treatment with the help of the microwave technology of ultrahigh frequencies at 50°C, for 60s. The number and size of pollen particle in honey are reduced by 10 times, and the size of glucose and sucrose crystals after processing is 5 times as small. The method of angular distribution of the laser beam has shown that the average size of sugar macromolecules in the treated honey decreases by 2 times as compared with crystallised honey. It has been proved that the suggested low-temperature, isothermal, accelerated treatment in a microwave reactor preserves a high diastase number in Gothe units (10–11), and the content of hydroxymethylfurfural does not exceed 3–6mg/kg honey. The results of X- ray fluorescence spectroscopy have confirmed that the chemical and elemental and oxide composition of honey after treatment is almost unchanged. Analysis of chemical and biological oxygen consumption shows that in the liquid honey samples, after melting by the suggested method, the biochemical activity of honey only reduced twofold, but it is far less than when honey is dissolved by the traditional heat transfer method. All this has a positive effect on stabilising liquid honey after its dissolution and on its stability during long-term (up to 1 year) storage. Based on dissolved, liquid, caramelised honey, a chewing gum has been developed to prevent and treat periodontal disease in dentistry. The chewing gum has been clinically tested and has proved highly effective in 72% of patients with gingivitis, gum disease, and periodontitis.