Honey-derived Flavonoids: Natural Products for the Prevention of Atherosclerosis and Cardiovascular Diseases

The ancient product honey produced by honeybees, particularly the species Apis mellifera from the nectar blossoms or from exudates of trees and plants. Honey contains a very high content of carbohydrates, mostly monoand disaccharides but it also contains many members of the family of antioxidant flavonoids. Over the last several decade of studies on human disease processes it has become recognized that an elevated, unfavourable oxidation status and a states of chronic inflammation underlies multiple diseases most notably, cardiovascular disease (CVD). The underlying cause of most CVD is atherosclerosis, the trapping of lipids in the vessel wall by modified proteoglycans, followed by oxidation, a chronic immune response and the development and rupture of atherosclerotic plaques. Many of the flavonoids present in honey have actions which impact on the oxidative and other processes of atherosclerosis. In this review we describe the actions of many of the flavonoids present in honey and speculate on the manner in which these might aggregate to produce a favorable CVD protective effect of honey per se