Heath Benefits of Phenolic Compounds in Honey: An Essay

Honey comes with a legendary history of being used as an indigenous medicine to cure a number of diseases. Honey is an essential source of phenolic molecules such as flavonoids and phenolic acids. The most abundant flavonoids present in honey include flavones, flavanones, and flavonols. Flavonoids show diverse activities such as non-inflammatory, antiallergenic, antiviral, antimalignant, antimicrobial, however, the antioxidant activity has been studied widely. Honey also possess a diverse molecules of phenolic acids including p-coumaric, ferulic, caffeic acid, acetophenones, phenylacetic acids, syringic, vanillic, gallic acid, and so on which endow it with the therapeutic activities against pathogens, inflammation while at the same time shows antioxidant and healing properties. The phenolic compounds owing to their medical properties make honey a very critical and attractive prophylactic entity for the prevention of chronic diseases associated with oxidative stress including cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, respiratory disease, hypertension, neurodegenerative diseases etc. In this chapter, a discussion has been made on classification, structure, and medicinal and health benefits of phenolic compounds.