甜甜的蜂蜜大家都愛喝。蜂蜜不僅可以給人體補充多種營養成分，還有排毒養顏的功效。蜂蜜有這么多的好處,那它究竟是怎么釀出來的呢？看了下面這篇文章，你就能對蜜蜂的工作了解一二了。

A honeybee starts the honey making process by visiting a flower and gathering some nectar. Many plants use nectar as a way of encouraging insects (bees, wasps, butterflies, etc.) to stop at their flowers. In the process of gathering nectar, the insect transfers pollen grains from one flower to another and pollinates the plants.

Most flowers' nectars are similar to the water mixed with sucrose. Nectars can contain other beneficial substances as well.

Enzymes that bees produce turn the sucrose into glucose and fructose. An enzyme, invertase, converts most of the sucrose into two kinds of six-carbon sugars, glucose and fructose. A small amount of the glucose is attacked by a second enzyme and converted into gluconic acid and hydrogen peroxide. The gluconic acid makes honey an acid medium with a low ph that is inhospitable to bacteria, molds, and fungi while the hydrogen peroxide gives short-range protection against these same organisms when the honey is ripening or is diluted for larval food. Honey bees also reduce the moisture content of nectar, which gives it a high osmotic pressure and protection against microbes.

Most of the moisture has to be evaporated, leaving only about 18-percent water in the honey. The physical change involves the removal of water, which is accomplished by bees externally manipulating nectar in their mouths and then placing small droplets on the upper side of cells and fanning their wings to increase air movement and carry away excess moisture.

Thus honey is made to be a very stable food. It naturally resists molds, fungi and other bacteria, allowing it to last for years without refrigeration!

nectar:花蜜

pollen:花粉

sucrose:蔗糖

enzymes:酶

glucose:葡萄糖

fructose:果糖

gluconic acid:葡萄糖酸

hydrogen peroxide:過氧化氫

fungus:真菌

larval:幼蟲的

osmotic pressure:滲透壓強

microbe:微生物

evaporate:蒸發

(英語點津Annabel編輯)