Apollo Herbs® Product Catalog
About Syrups
the Honey Bee
The Greeks and Romans were keeping bees 3000 years ago. They called honey "nectar of the Gods" and Greek athletes used honey as a carbohydrate boost. According to the Roman, Pliny, originator of the doctrine of signatures, drinking a glass of honey and cider vinegar every day cleans the system and promotes good health. D.C. Jarvis, M.D. in his book Folk Medicine re-popularized honey and apple cider vinegar in more modern times.
Scrolls of the Orient, the Talmud, the Torah, the Koran, the Bible, and the Book of Mormon all mention the honeybee and the healing foods she creates and keeps in her hive. Vishnu, Preserver and Protector of the Hindu trinity of gods, is often symbolized as a blue bee on a lotus flower. Kama, the east Indian god of love, wields a bow with a string of entwined chain of bees. Spring fertility rites often used the bee as a symbol for festivities.
In Greek mythology, the nymph Melissa cared for the infant Zeus while he was being hidden from his father, king of the gods. She plundered beehives for honey to feed the infant and he developed a permanent sweet tooth. When her role in protecting Zeus was discovered, she was turned into an insect. Zeus took pity on her and turned her into a honeybee so she could make honey for eternity.
Apollo Herbs Herbal Syrups are made from freshly extracted herbs blended with honey or vegetable glycerin.
Honey & Honey CombHoney is a sugary
secretion deposited in honeycombs by the honeybee (Apis mellifera).
Honey is a delicious sweetener and a useful nutrient.
The virtues of honey have been recorded in much traditional folklore. It has been used therapeutically as a demulcent in cough preparations.
Its major constituents are fructose and glucose in equal proportions. Also present in small quantities are sucrose, other carbohydrates, pigments, volatile oils, and pollen grains. There is no scientific evidence to support the myriad health claims attributed to honey, although its smooth demulcent action and sweet taste make it a popular ingredient in many natural syrups. Honey’s thickness prevents bacterial growth thus providing the syrup with natural preservative properties as well.
Vegetable Glycerin Glycerin (glycerol)
is a viscous, neutral, colorless, sweet-tasting liquid with a boiling
point of 290 degrees centigrade. Glycerin can be dissolved into water
or alcohol, but not oils. Many compounds can dissolve into glycerin easier
than they do into water or alcohol, so it can be a useful solvent.
Glycerin is highly "hygroscopic" which means that it absorbs water from the air. It is also a humectant, meaning it attracts moisture to the skin. Glycerin is present in all natural fats, whether animal or vegetable.
It was discovered in 1779 by Karl W. Scheele (who called it ‘sweet oil’) by treating olive oil with lead oxide. It can be manufactured by the saponification of fats, by fermentation of sugary substances, and by synthesis from propylene. Glycerin can be obtained commercially as a by-product of the fermentation of molasses and sugar with a selected yeast in an alkaline medium.
Glycerol is the pure form while Glycerin is the impure commercial form. Glycerin is purified by heating it in the presence of an activated carbon or by distillation. Glycerin is a neutral substance which reacts with organic and inorganic acids to produce esters.
Glycerin is used as a food preservative and as a lubricant. It is used in pharmacy and perfumery, in the making of soaps and lotions. Apollo Herbs uses vegetable glycerin as a syrup base because of its emollient property, its sweet taste, syrupy nature, and its natural preservative quality.
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