At the edges of the forests of the temperate natural zone there is a plant that gives us (with the help of bees) a fragrant and tasty honey - clover. Useful properties and harm of this flower will be considered in our article. It should immediately be noted that the clover plant is of two types: with white and yellow flowers. The latter is considered medicinal. All beekeepers know that the most valuable and useful honey for the body is obtained from the flowers of yellow melilot. But finding it on sale is very difficult. Instead, you can often find fake - burdock honey. It is also tasty, but sweeter, to cloying. And useful properties in comparison with clover honey in burdock are not enough. How to distinguish one product from another? We will explain this in our article. We will also touch on the question of who should avoid eating a sweet product from clover flowers. Honey, of course, is very good for health, but it also has contraindications.
Melilot honey: beneficial properties
The photo in the article shows us a jar of this product. First of all, a strange color is striking, not at all "honey." The product has a milky, even greenish tint. White clover enriches honey with the smell of vanilla. But this aftertaste is light. Honey should not smell like vanilla ice cream. White clover crystallizes very slowly. And if this happens, then you get a creamy mass of white, like milk, color. Medicinal sweet clover (the one with yellow flowers) produces honey with a small bitterness. This product is the most useful. But since it contains a lot (up to forty percent) of fructose, it quickly crystallizes. Every sweet clover is a storehouse of vitamins. But yellow honey, although bitter, is more beneficial. In Canada and the USA, he is the leader in sales of bee products. Melilot honey has high enzymatic activity. Let us examine in more detail its useful properties.
Value
Varieties of honey, or rather, flowers, the nectar of which served as the starting material for the product, have different indications and are used to treat various diseases. For example, linden is good for colds. Acacia honey is used to treat gastrointestinal ailments. Chestnut color restores the heart. And what is the value of honey from clover? The beneficial properties of this beekeeping product are difficult to overestimate. But his main “specialization” is women's health. Melilot honey contains minerals and trace elements that cause a rush of breast milk in nursing mothers. This product should also be used during pregnancy, so that the body has time to receive these substances and rebuild for childbirth and subsequent lactation. It is enough to eat one spoonful of clover honey at the end of the meal. But this product is good for other women, and not just those who are preparing to become a mother or breastfeeding. Doctors advise honey from sweet clover for menopausal neurosis.
Indications for internal use
A plant with yellow flowers is considered medicinal. Therefore, it is not surprising that honey from clover is also such. The beneficial properties of this product are not limited to the effect on female reproductive health. Yellow clover honey is an excellent sedative. It helps with insomnia, neurosis, high blood pressure, frequent headaches. Like linden honey, clover honey is used to treat airways. It not only relieves inflammation, but is even effective (in combination with other medications, of course) in the treatment of tuberculosis. It is also an excellent laxative and diuretic. And, of course, like every honey, melilot has an expectorant property, so it is prescribed for colds, bronchitis, tonsillitis. It enhances immunity, it is recommended to use it during epidemics.
Indications for external use
How to use externally honey from clover? The beneficial properties of this food product are a long list. Among them are spasmolytic and analgesic effects. Even in ancient times, honey from yellow clover in the form of compresses was applied to burns and festering wounds. It is effective in the treatment of furunculosis. Honey can be dissolved in warm water and thus prepare healing baths for children. Such fonts are good for adults in case of rheumatism, myositis, varicose veins, joint diseases. Honey has a mild laxative effect, so it is recommended for those who suffer from constipation. And as a medicine for external use, it is used for gout.
Melilot honey in folk medicine
Our ancestors called this honey plant a sweet clover, ground grass, and burkun. And the nerds call him Melilotus. This Latin term consists of two words: “chalk” (meaning “honey”) and “lotus” (“forage grass”). It is very easy now to determine the essence of this two-year-old legume plant. "Honey lotus" blooms very beautifully, especially yellow. The bees, smelling its smell, rush towards it in swarms. The benefits of honey from clover were known a long time ago, and not only in Russia. Traditional medicine used it as an expectorant for coughing, pneumonia, bronchitis. In Russia, they cut out the middle of the black radish and put melilot honey inside. For a day and a half, he mixed with vegetable juice. This drug was consumed twenty minutes before a meal, one dessert spoon. Melilot is a very fragrant plant. It is used not only as a beekeeping product. Zaporizhzhya Cossacks ground dry clover grass and added to tobacco. And Ukrainian housewives wiped barrels with a decoction of the plant, in which they were going to pickle vegetables.
In cosmetology
Representatives of the fair sex quickly figured out how useful honey from clover. Youth acne will pass, and oily skin will gently dry, if you add a spoonful of this tasty potion to warm water for washing. For more serious problems (acne, boils, acne) make cosmetic masks. To do this, grind on a coarse grater two cucumbers and mix with a spoon of clover honey. Put such a mask on a cleaned dry face, wash off after fifteen minutes. This tool is useful for any type of skin. The only thing to consider: if you do not want the mask to dry your face, add a little cream or sour cream to it. And for oily skin, such a simple folk recipe is suitable: add a spoonful of clover honey to a glass of warm water and mix thoroughly. Wipe your face with this solution instead of tonic. The essential oil of this plant is used in soap making to fix the smell.
In dietetics
Those who follow the figure, too, have long noticed honey from the clover. The properties of this product in dietetics are twofold. On the one hand, it perfectly cleanses the intestines without harming its microflora. Melilot honey has a mild thermogenic as well as diuretic effect. This should be taken into account by those who use dietary supplements for weight loss. In this case, you need to increase fluid intake, as well as drink less coffee, tea, energy drinks. On the other hand, the caloric content of such honey is quite high - three hundred and nine kilocalories (per 100 g). But there is no fat in the product, and this is with a significant content of carbohydrates (81.5 g). Protein in honey from melilot 0.8 grams. The glucose content is also quite high: 36.7 percent with 40% fructose. This should be borne in mind by patients with diabetes. You should also know that this product immediately loses all its valuable properties when heated above fifty degrees. But in its natural form, it is useful both in liquid and in candied form.
Melilot honey: medicinal properties and contraindications
In our world, there are certainly no wholesome products. So, clover honey also has its, although a few, contraindications. Let's not forget that this plant belongs to the legume family. Therefore, it is recommended to avoid its use for those who are allergic to peas, beans and the like. Honey can provoke an increased flatulence of the intestine, especially in combination with milk. In allergy sufferers, it can cause indigestion. There are resinous and tannins in the grass of melilot. Therefore, in Central Asia and the Caucasus it is used as a seasoning. Moreover, both leaves and stems and even roots go into food. But in the chemical composition of the plant there is also dicumarol, which prevents blood coagulation. In the flowers of sweet clover there are vitamins E and C, choline, flavonium glycoside and other biologically active substances.
How to distinguish a valuable product from a fake
This plant in our country develops vacant lots and roadsides, while in the USA and Canada it is specially sown for honey first of all, as well as for hay for livestock. It’s easy to get a clover product in America. But in our part of the world honey from this plant is very rare. You can buy it, and even in liquid form, only at beekeepers. In stores, a fake is often sold - also honey, but from rapeseed. It gives out too sugary taste and lack of vanilla smell. The color of honey from the clover must be very light - “hay”. And when it crystallizes, it completely acquires the shade and texture of pork lard. At first, the honey from the yellow melilot is slightly bitter, and then on the palate for a long time a sweet-sharp aftertaste is felt. Having tried this product, you will not confuse it with any other.
Honey for hypertensive patients
In this matter, the opinions of scientists and traditional healers differ. The first claim that coumarin, contained in the nectar of the plant, increases blood pressure. Traditional medicine claims that for patients suffering from hypertension, it is just useful to eat honey from clover. The beneficial properties of this product are also that it improves peripheral circulation.