Peter Edwards wrote: > Could be bad news for NZ beekeepers - no doubt it will soon be > manufactured for far less than the £12 per lb that manuka fetches > round here! > > Presumably we can now find out if other honeys contain methylglyoxal. > Might want to go slow on that. http://nar.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/full/29/16/3433 To quote a paragraph form the article: "Moreover, methylglyoxal reacts with free amino acids (16 <http://nar.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/full/29/16/3433#GKE465C16>,17 <http://nar.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/full/29/16/3433#GKE465C17>)^ and Arg and Lys residues in proteins under physiological conditions^ to form advanced glycation end products (18 <http://nar.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/full/29/16/3433#GKE465C18>,19 <http://nar.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/full/29/16/3433#GKE465C19>), which play^ an important role in the pathophysiology of aging and diabetic^ complications (20 <http://nar.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/full/29/16/3433#GKE465C20>,21 <http://nar.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/full/29/16/3433#GKE465C21>). It was also reported that the concentration^ of methylglyoxal in blood is elevated in diabetes mellitus patients^ (22 <http://nar.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/full/29/16/3433#GKE465C22>--24 <http://nar.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/full/29/16/3433#GKE465C24>). Thus, the reactions of methylglyoxal with proteins^ as well as DNA may cause many age-related human diseases." You can buy it from some places as an alternative medicine on line. The NIH has lots of articles on it especially as a bacteria produced toxin. Most of the articles relate to a go slow approach to its use as a dietary supplement. I would be hesitant to want higher concentrations of it in food since it can cause problems, as noted. It could be a drawback for consumption of certain honey. My guess is it is a byproduct of the reaction between bacteria and the peroxide produced by the normal breakdown of the honey/water interface. The researchers might be looking at the effect, not the cause. Bacteria do release it as a toxin.Peroxide is a natural bacteria killer while, from my reading of the NIH articles, bacteria have developed protective processes for handling methylglyoxal, since they produce it. Bill Truesdell Bath, Maine ****************************************************** * Full guidelines for BEE-L posting are at: * * http://www.honeybeeworld.com/bee-l/guidelines.htm * ******************************************************
