Differences between European legislation and revised Codex Alimentarius standards exist, and refer to the definition, the claim of the country of origin, honey of low enzymes and the adoption of Baker’s honey. Furthermore, different countries maintain dated quality criteria that do not coincide with the provisions of Codex or EU directives. The parameters that vary are mainly the moisture content, HMF, diastase activity, electrical conductivity, sugars and the microscopical justification. The necessity to adopt national rules is imposed mainly by the absence of provisions regarding the characteristics of monofloral honey, the declaration of the geographical origin of the product, the natural deviation of different types of honey and the quality rating of domestic honey. To address the problem that exists in international legislation regarding honey, we propose adopting minimum requirements as mandatory for all countries that produce, import or export honey.

Honey has been used since ancient times for the treatment of wounds. The discovery of antibiotics made its use less appealing, but the development of antibiotic resistance has again increased the interest in honey for its antibacterial properties. However, attention must be paid to the quality of the honey used for medical application. Honey may contain toxic compounds when plants in honey harvesting areas are treated with herbicides and pesticides or are polluted with industrial heavy metals, antibiotics, or exposed to environmental pollution. Moreover, bacterial contamination of honey with, for example, Clostridium endospores has long been disregarded. Honey directly obtained from the beekeeper or from the store may not therefore be suitable and it may even be dangerous for use or for wound healing, as there is no guarantee that it is safe, or it may not be effective because of inappropriate sterilization methods. Therefore, there is a need for a clear definition of ‘medical grade honey’ (MGH), to guarantee its safety and efficacy for therapeutic uses. Due to the current lack of strict guidelines to achieve standardized MGH formulations, this article poses clear standards and criteria, including those related to the collection, possible contamination, sterilization, production, storage, physicochemical, legal and safety issues to which MGH should adhere to distinguish itself from regular honey. We discuss current honey-based wound care products and whether they adhere to the standards of MGH. The presented guidelines should result in safe MGH formulations that are effective for wound healing.

“Bee pollen” is pollen collected from flowers by honey bees. It is used by the bees to nourish themselves, mainly by providing royal jelly and brood food, but it is also used for human nutrition. For the latter purpose, it is collected at the hive entrance as pellets that the bees bring to the hive. Bee pollen has diverse bioactivities, and thus has been used as a health food, and even as medication in some countries. In this paper, we provide standard methods for carrying out research on bee pollen. First, we introduce a method for the production and storage of bee pollen which assures quality of the product. Routine methods are then provided for the identification of the pollen’s floral sources, and determination of the more important quality criteria such as water content and content of proteins, carbohydrates, fatty acids, vitamins, alkaloids, phenolic and polyphenolic compounds. Finally, methods are described for the determination of some important bioactivities of bee pollen such as its antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial and antimutagenic properties. Métodos estándar Para la investigación del polen El "polen de abeja" es el polen recogido de las flores por las abejas melíferas. El polen de abeja es utilizado para nutrir a las propias abejas, principalmente para proporcionar jalea real y alimento para las crías, pero también se utiliza para la nutrición humana. Para este último fin, se recoge en la entrada de la colmena en forma de gránulos que las abejas llevan a la colmena. El polen de abeja tiene diversas bioactividades, por lo que se hautilizado como alimento para la salud, e incluso como medicamento en algunos países. En este artículo, proporcionamos métodos estándar para llevar a cabo investigaciones sobre el polen de abeja. En primer lugar, presentamos un método de producción y almacenamiento de polen de abeja que garantiza la calidad del producto. A continuación, se ofrecen métodos de rutina para la identificación de las fuentes florales del polen y la determinación de los criterios de calidad más importantes, como el contenido de agua y de proteínas, carbohidratos, ácidos grasos, vitaminas, alcaloides y compuestos fenólicos y polifenólicos. Por último, se describen métodos para la determinación de algunas bioactividades importantes del polen de abeja, como sus propiedades antioxidantes, antiinflamatorias, antimicrobianas y antimutagénicas.