Invertase: A Powerful Ingredient in Raw Honey

Raw honey is known to have a wide variety of beneficial components.  Today, the Sphere of Health will cover a special enzyme known as invertase.  The utility that invertase yields for your body is one of many reasons for manufacturers to stop pasteurizing honey, and for consumers to choose the raw, unadulterated product the way it comes straight out of the apiary.

The systematic name for this enzyme is beta-fructofuranosidase, but a few of its other common names are: invertin, glucosucrase, and saccharase.  Bees naturally synthesize this enzyme, and as a result, it is introduced into honey as they swallow and regurgitate the nectar until it becomes the desired consistency.  Invertase can be synthesized in a laboratory, but it is expensive to do on a large scale. 

Honeybees synthesize an abundance of invertase, especially for animals their size.

Author: LevyRat, under the Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication.

Health Benefits of Invertase

Peptic ulcers commonly derived from two common factors.

• Digestive fluid imbalance in the stomach.
• An infection of Helicobacter pylori. 

Invertase has been shown to eliminate harmful bacteria in both the stomach and intestine.  It has both antiseptic and antibacterial properties.

This enzyme is also hygroscopic, meaning it can extract and retain water from a system.  When it applies itself to the intestine, it can eradicate antagonistic microorganisms that depend on moisture to survive.

The antioxidant properties of invertase also specialize in aiding the digestive tract.  It not only has nutritional but medicinal uses.  Raw honey is used in some parts of the world to fight intestinal ailments.

Perhaps the most basic ability of invertase is to break down sugars in the body.  It does so via hydrolysis, cleaving the bond between the fructose and the glucose components of sucrose.  This protects against sugar fermenting in the digestive tract.

There are other foods that contain invertase. Yeast cells contain invertase, therefore, it can be found in breads, beer, and other yeast formed foods.  However, consuming those foods have more downsides than they are worth to be a good source of invertase.  Some invertase is also found in vegetables.  Raw honey has a high concentration of invertase due to the nature of honey's manufacture.

The word raw in raw honey needs to be emphasized.  To get invertase from honey, it cannot be pasteurized.  Invertase is killed, along with the other healthy enzymes in honey, at the temperatures to which it is raised in the pasteurization process.  The enzyme is also sold as a supplement in isolated form, or as a multi-enzyme package.

As will be stated liberally in this blog, anything that helps your natural gut flora both boosts your immune system, and also slows down the aging process.