Although there is no distinction between raw and cooked honey, the application of honey in traditional Chinese medicine can be divided into two categories according to its use. Raw food refers to direct consumption, such as moistening lung and relieving cough, treating weak constipation of the elderly after illness, or as a nutritional tonic for external use to treat burns; After refining and ripening, it is used for honey roasting, pill making and paste collection.
The quality requirements of these two kinds of honey are quite different.
The higher the maturity of honey, the richer the content of nutrients and therapeutic substances in honey, so the maturity is a crucial index of raw honey. Moreover, clinical verification shows that even if semi-mature honey is concentrated under reduced pressure during processing, its curative effect is reduced, which is incomparable to natural mature honey. It is speculated that the active components and volatile oil with therapeutic effect in honey are related to the destruction and loss during processing. Therefore, the production of high-quality mature honey for raw materials is the guarantee of curative effect.
Some people divide honey into raw honey and cooked honey. In fact, cooked honey is a processing term of traditional Chinese medicine, which refers to specially refined honey, which is used in honey moxibustion, Chinese medicine pills, ointments and various ointments. In actual consumption, there is no difference between raw honey and cooked honey, and honey products after sterilization and impurity removal can be eaten directly.