**2. Honeybee composition**

Honeybees exist before human inhabits the Earth. It is formed due to action of honey‐ bee's enzymes (diastase, invertase and glucose oxidase) on nectar or secretions of flowers. Honey is composed of various sugars, mainly glucose and fructose, but also sucrose, maltose and other oligosaccharides. In addition, honey contains proteins, amino acids, enzymes, organic acids, minerals and pollen. Besides, it can also contains traces of fungi, algae, yeasts and other solid particles from the process of obtaining honey [12] and lactic acid bacteria (LAB) [3].

Overall, honey contains acids, such as gluconic, succinic, malic, acetic, citric and butyric acid. Gluconic acid is found in greater amounts and is produced by action of glucose oxi‐ dase enzyme on the glucose to produce gluconic acid and hydrogen peroxide. Eighteen free amino acids occur in honey. Proline is the most abundant. Honey has small amount of vitamins that are negligible in the nutritional point of view. Therein includes ascorbic acid, niacin, pantothenic acid, riboflavin and thiamine. The minerals found in honey are potassium, sodium, calcium, magnesium, chlorine, iron, copper, manganese, phosphorus, sulfur and silica. Its content level of minerals is very variable and depends on the nectar source. Besides honey contains small amount of vegetable substances that contribute to the aroma and taste.

Honey has a set of five biologically active enzymes: Enzyme invertase (responsible for sucrose hydrolysis), diastase (which digests starch produced by plants), glucose oxidase (responsible for the production of acid and hydrogen peroxide), catalase (which uses hydro‐ gen peroxide as substrate) and acid phosphatase. All these enzymes are derived from the glandular secretions of the honeybee. Hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) can be found in low amounts in honey, which is produced by the decomposition of fructose in the presence of free acids, a process that occurs constantly in honey. The production of HMF depends on the temperature/time that the honey is subjected, particularly during pasteurization and storage [12].
