Honey - diastase number: what does the table depend on, GOST

Beekeeping products people have enjoyed since time immemorial. Rock paintings of the process of honey collection date back to the Stone Age. It is known for sure that the Egyptian pharaohs were big lovers of sweet, including honey. The first chronicle mentions of honey in Ancient Rus date back to the 9th century.

Useful properties of honey

Since ancient times, honey has been considered not just a delicious treat, but also a cure for many diseases. They treated diseases of bronchopulmonary and gastrointestinal system, eye diseases, skin ailments and scurvy. Until now, bee treatment is one of the most effective methods of traditional medicine - honey heals colds in the season of exacerbations and actively use it in home cosmetology. Today it is scientifically proven that the composition of bees nectar includes a huge number of vitally important minerals, trace elements and vitamins.

So what is honey?

Honey is a viscous, viscous nectar, produced by bees. To accumulate 100 grams of goodies, these laborers need to collect pollen from almost a million flowers. They collect tasty pollen from various inflorescences, mixing it with their own enzymes, produced by the salivary gland. As a result of their vital activity, this nutritious and useful product is obtained.

Product quality

Undoubtedly, the medicinal properties of honey are undeniable, but only on condition that it is really a natural product. Bee honey is one of the most complex organic substances, the quality of which can be determined in several ways. It is believed that the most accurate estimate of the density, maturity and composition of the product can be determined only in laboratory conditions, where experts determine the diastatic number of honey.

Nevertheless, experienced beekeepers and real gourmets not only know how to distinguish a natural product from counterfeits, but also guess the places of gathering of bees nectar and plants, which were pollinated by bees. Experts determine these parameters by color, density, transparency, viscosity and smell of honey. A diastolic number or the definition of some other indicators they do not need for this.

However, it is very difficult to determine the true quality and naturalness of honey for most inhabitants. Therefore, any beekeeping products that go on sale must undergo mandatory monitoring in laboratories.

The most important enzymes in honey

Natural bee honey contains many different enzymes produced by the salivary gland of the worker's bee and falling into the collected nectar. These are biological catalysts that contribute to the regulation of metabolic processes in the body. They play an enormous role in the process of the formation of honey from flower nectar. The main enzymes are glucose oxidase, invertase and amylase. If the number of these elements in honey is less than the generally accepted norms, then such products are considered falsified. Perhaps the decrease in enzymes was due to improper storage.

Glucose oxidase during the interaction with other components cleaves glucose, forming hydrogen peroxide and gluconic acid. Being an unstable element, hydrogen peroxide is destroyed, however, at the initial stage of nectar processing, future honey is protected from various kinds of molds, fungi and harmful bacteria and microbes. The remaining gluconic acid affects the acidity of honey and largely determines its final taste.

Invertase splits sucrose into glucose and fructose. Amylase destroys starch, turning it into maltose. The activity of this enzyme is determined by the value of the diastase number of honey. What is it, we now try to understand. At the same time we learn what this indicator should have for a quality product.

The diastatic number of honey - what is it?

Any kind of natural honey, packaged and stored with the necessary conditions, contain a large number of enzymes. One of the most important protein catalysts is amylase. Another, more familiar name for this enzyme is diastase. It is this substance that affects the decomposition of starch. The diastatic number of honey is the main indicator of the value and naturalness of bee products. The higher it is, the more qualitative and useful the product is. Determine this parameter is possible only in the laboratory.

Determination of the main quality indicator

How to determine the diastatic number of honey? To date, there are several ways to find out the main quality indicator. In our country, as in a number of other European countries, the Gote method is standard.

This technique is based on the special ability of enzymes to break down starch. The diastatic number of honey is calculated by dissolving a 1% starch solution for one hour at 40 ° C in 1 gram of honey. The amount of dissolved milliliters of starch is the main indicator. The diastatic number is expressed in units of Goth.

This method is rather complicated and lengthy, but it gives the most accurate result. There are special tables for the diastatic number of honey. They are guided by the research.

Table of minimum diastatic honey numbers for some regions:

The optimal amount of diastatic honey is regulated by GOST in the range from 7 to 50 units. According to UN standards, the minimum number of diastases is 3 Gote units (the content of the other component, hydroxymethylfurfural, should not exceed 15 mg / kg). This is due to the fact that in the world there are different kinds of honey with a scanty content of natural diastase (a product collected from blossoming acacia, cotton or citrus).

Undoubtedly, the higher the Gotte index, the better and more valuable the product. However, this parameter can also vary depending on the site of collection of nectar. Therefore, many experts doubt the effectiveness of this technique.

What determines the diastatic number of honey?

It is proved that the climatic conditions of the terrain in which bees collected honey, play a special role in the formation of the most important enzymes. It is known that the products obtained in the southern regions have indicators much worse than honey collected in the northern regions. This is because the summer in the north is short, and the plants do not flower very long. But the nectar collected by bees from such inflorescences, tasty and fragrant. Therefore, bee products in the northern regions have always been particularly revered by connoisseurs of honey.

According to the same generally accepted tables, the diastatic number of honey from warm regions is low and can vary from 0 to 7 units. While in northern honey it sometimes reaches 50 units.

Very often manufacturers offer bee products, the diastase number of which exceeds the maximum mark. This can be a very successful experiment, conducted in a separate botanical garden. But, unfortunately, most often this is not natural honey, but a synthetic, enforced amylase enriched product.

Wrong opinion

Many consumers mistakenly believe that diastase itself is the most valuable component of honey. Apparently, the wrong opinion has developed due to the fact that the diastatic number refers to GOST. In fact, the amount of this enzyme determines the viscosity of the processed nectar - the higher its content, the more bees have introduced it into the composition. There are some types of honey with a naturally small amount of amylase, one of which is the one that is harvested from the white acacia. Nevertheless, this type of product is the most expensive in the world.