# Honey from Poisonous Plants



## dustyshoes (May 22, 2008)

Does anyone know if honey from poisonous plants is good for human consumption? An example would be honey made from holly bushes or azalea bushes. I have a holly bush and there are literally thousands of honey bees visiting it everyday.


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## alleyyooper (Apr 22, 2005)

I am running out of GB's so will leave the search to you to do. Just Google.
holly and azalea honey.

 Al


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## homstdr74 (Jul 4, 2011)

dustyshoes said:


> Does anyone know if honey from poisonous plants is good for human consumption? An example would be honey made from holly bushes or azalea bushes. I have a holly bush and there are literally thousands of honey bees visiting it everyday.


I have read that honey from rhododendrons (a larger azalea plant) is poisonous if harvested uncapped and consumed. But that same honey is okay if cured and capped.

One famous example happened during the first century when Pompeii the Great's troops, during their advance on the Heptakometes, encountered a large cache of honey(left as bait by their enemy), consumed it and became so ill that they were easily defeated.

http://www.beekeeping.com/articles/us/war_bees.htm


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## Shin (Mar 25, 2014)

Another old historical reference like that Pompeii example, is referenced by Saint Francis de Sales, telling about the poisonous honey of Heraclea of Pontus, which was so it is said because the bees gathered it from aconite.

He writes in his advice to Philothea: 'You may distinguish worldly from holy friendship in the same manner as the poisonous honey of Heraclea is known from the other; for as the honey of Heraclea is sweeter than the ordinary honey, on account of the juice of the aconite, which gives it an additional flavor; so worldly friendship ordinarily produces a great profusion of endearing words, passionate expressions, with admiration of beauty, behavior, and other sensual qualities. Holy friendship, on the contrary, speaks a plain and sincere language, and commends nothing but virtue and the grace of God, the only foundation on which it subsists.'


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