Turkey's 'mad honey' not for the weak-hearted

Link : http://uk.news.yahoo.com/041020/323/f4z6j.html

PARIS (AFP) - A Turkish honey called "mad honey" for its reputed ability to induce euphoria and stimulate an erection contains a poison that can cause vomiting and heart problems, a journal warns.

The honey, made on stretches of Turkey's Black Sea coast, comes from bees which absorb a natural poison, andromedotoxin, found in the nectar of local rhododendrons.

Emergency doctors at the Abant Izzet Baysal University of Duzce record how in 2002 they had to treat 19 people for nausea, vomiting, low blood pressure, a slowed heart rate and fainting.

The patients, aged between 22 and 61, had eaten between 30 grammes and 180 grammes (one ounce to six ounces) of "mad honey" a few hours before falling severely sick.

Fifteen of the 19 had apparently taken the honey as an alternative medicine to ease a duodenal ulcer.

The patients were monitored for 24 hours in the hospital's coronary unit and treated with atropine to bring their heart rate and blood pressure back to normal. All made a complete recovery.

The doctors, led by cardiologist Hakan Ozhen, say the threshold for toxicity from "mad honey" is unknown but believe, from previous cases, that as little as a teaspoonful of it is enough to make someone fall sick.

They warn physicians outside Turkey to be watchful of similar symptoms among their patients. Even though "mad honey" is a local food, it is possible that it could be exported, unprocessed.

The study is published on Thursday in Emergency Medicine Journal, a British publication.

"Mad honey" was given its name by the first-century Roman historian Pliny, who also called it "the honey of miracles" for its supposed fit-making qualities. Pliny reported that the honey could not be sold in the Roman empire because it was poisonous.

According to legend, "mad honey" was once used as a weapon.

In 67, the army of Rome, under Pompey the Great, advanced against their eastern enemy, King Mithridates, and his allies, the Heptakometes.

Pompey's thousand-strong force entered a narrow pass in Trebizond, where they found jars of honey lining the road as a "tribute" to the conquering force.

They gorged themselves on the offering and fell sick with delirium and vomiting, and were thus easily slaughtered by the waiting Heptakometes.