Honey

Every civilisation from East to West have utilised honey for it's properties. It is nutrient and healing. It is used externally or taken internally. The bee honey precursor, is flower nectar.

The nectar of course is the food lure for bees, butterflies,  various insects and other pollinators. The composition of nectar from the plants will vary. For example nectar taken from those flowers that use a bird as the pollinator tends to be lower in organic acids, than from those which are preferred by the insects.

The composition will also vary from location to location and from flower  specie to flower specie. Honey that has been gathered from chemically sprayed  crops will also contain traces of the poisons sprayed on them in the same way as  all scientifically raised food. (Chemical Farming)

Honey from bees that have been fed on sugar water is deficient in vital trace  elements and nutrients and as such is inferior, and is to all intents and  purposes an artificial product lacking in health giving properties.

This is common sense, apart from minor changes, the honey secreted by the bee is essentially an inspissated nectar. Raw honey is superior in everyway to heated honey, in that it will contain live enzymes. Heat treatment will destroy the enzymes.

Raw honey is rich in both enzymatic and non-enzymatic antioxidants, including catalase, ascorbic acid, flavonoids. A unique flavonoid, pinocembrin, is present in high quantities in propolis and honey. Other flavonoids found in honey are pinobanksin, chrysin, galangin, quercetin, Its anti-microbial properties are prodigious, as are its wound healing. It has proved useful in burns and sunburn.