The Rhododendron honey, more famous as the mad honey or the miracle honey, is an incredible potent type of honey that bees produce from certain select species of rhododendron flowers.
The honey comes in a dark, reddish color and has a particularly bitter taste. The potency of the honey comes from the chemical grayanotoxin which is found in a few rare species of rhododendrons. According to Dr. Suleyman Turedi, a researcher based in Turkey and who is currently studying the effects of the rhododendron honey (on a side note, Dr. Turedi refers to the honey as ‘deli bal’ which is Turkish for mad honey), although as many as 700 different species of rhododendrons are found all over the world, grayanotoxin is found in the nectars of no more than two or three of these species, at least according to what research has found until now.
However, it may interest you to know that as many as 25 types of grayanotoxins are found in these limited numbers of flowers and these are also found in ‘unknown concentrations.’ This is one reason why scientists are still a good distance away from specifically determining the effects of rhododendron honey on human system.
Be that as it may, we know this for a fact that this honey has been in use since ancient times as traditional medicine and also as poison. For example, there is this interesting anecdote about a king of Pontus who got the better of a large Roman invading troop by spreading hundreds of beehives containing mad honey on their road. The story goes like this that once the Roman soldiers found the honey and gorged on it and subsequently became highly intoxicated and incapable to fight, they got easily beaten by the Pontus army. The legend also tells us that this king Mithridates had particular interest about different kinds of poisons and this is how he got to know about the effects of the mad or miracle honey, as it is also called. And the empire of Mithridates was located at the region bordering the Black Sea.
To come back to recent times, the mad honey has received a lot of press in the last years and a good part of this publicity is owing to the psychedelic effects of the honey. Accordingly, the rhododendron honey is already in high demand among people who love to get high! And even small portions of mad honey are now sold at exorbitant prices. In fact, to go by a National Geographic report, certain mad honey harvesters in Turkey are putting their lives in risk to collect the honey from the beehives where it is found.
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