Melezitose
Lexikon
Melezitose is a trisaccharide made up of two molecules of glucose and one molecule of fructose, occurring mainly in the honeydew of certain aphid species, especially on spruce and other conifers.
Melezitose is a trisaccharide made up of two molecules of glucose and one molecule of fructose, occurring mainly in the honeydew of certain aphid species, especially on spruce and other conifers. For beekeepers, this sugar matters mainly because it behaves differently from the other honey sugars and tends to crystallize very quickly and very firmly, sometimes already in the comb, before the honey can even be extracted.
If a forest honey contains a high proportion of melezitose, it can already harden in the comb cells starting from the cell bottom, and can then neither be extracted nor easily taken up by the bees. This is then called cement honey, because the honey feels as firm as set cement. For the bees themselves, a high melezitose content in the winter stores is risky, because they can hardly dissolve the hard honey, which threatens digestive problems and even serious illness for the colony.
In beekeeping practice, suspicion of a high melezitose content means extracting the affected combs as early as possible or, if necessary, letting the bees themselves rework the hardened combs, since by processing them again with their own enzymes they can partly dissolve the crystals once more. Some beekeepers also deliberately mix honey with a high melezitose content with moister honey, to reduce the tendency to crystallize and still be able to process the honey after all.