Hygiena 2018, 63(2):50-53 | DOI: 10.21101/hygiena.a1602

Selected plant toxins in honey and their health effects

Katarína Kromerová1,2, Vladimír Bencko2
1 Úrad verejného zdravotníctva Slovenskej republiky, Bratislava, Slovenská republika
2 Univerzita Karlova, 1. lékařská fakulta, Ústav hygieny a epidemiologie a Všeobecná fakultní nemocnice, Praha, Česká republika

There is a lot of information about the nutritional and medicinal properties of honey. However, honey may contain compounds that can lead to toxicity. Plant toxins or phytotoxins are secondary plant metabolites that show acute or chronic toxicity or have anti-nutritional effects. Feeding bees on the flowers of toxic plants can result in the contamination of honey. The most important plant toxins in honey are pyrolizidine alkaloids and gryanotoxins (GTX).

Keywords: honey, xenobiotics, phytotoxins, contamination of foodstuffs

Published: June 30, 2018  Show citation

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Kromerová K, Bencko V. Selected plant toxins in honey and their health effects. Hygiena. 2018;63(2):50-53. doi: 10.21101/hygiena.a1602.
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