Scientists Discover New Anti-Inflammatory Components in Honey

A vendor pours honey at his shop in Sanaa, Yemen July 25, 2018. REUTERS/Khaled Abdullah
A vendor pours honey at his shop in Sanaa, Yemen July 25, 2018. REUTERS/Khaled Abdullah
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Scientists Discover New Anti-Inflammatory Components in Honey

A vendor pours honey at his shop in Sanaa, Yemen July 25, 2018. REUTERS/Khaled Abdullah
A vendor pours honey at his shop in Sanaa, Yemen July 25, 2018. REUTERS/Khaled Abdullah

Sugars make up about 95 percent of honey, explaining how the substance became synonymous with sweetness and a food staple. But people have also historically used honey as an ointment, hinting at anti-inflammatory properties that researchers are now investigating.

Some of that research suggests honey can act on a protein called NLRP3, which triggers beneficial inflammation during immune responses but has also been implicated in diabetes, Alzheimer's, and other diseases.

A multidisciplinary team of Nebraska researchers, led by Jiujiu Yu, went searching for overlooked components of honey that could help explain its anti-inflammatory activity. The findings were published in the latest issue of the journal Extracellular Vesicles.

According to a report published on the university's website, when the researchers did their search, they found so-called extracellular vesicles: tiny membrane-protected particles that often carry proteins, ribonucleic acids and other biomolecules from one cell to another and have been identified in many foods. Their size ranges between 30 and 100 nanometers.

The honey-housed vesicles contained 142 proteins from plants and 82 from honey bees. To test whether the vesicles themselves help combat inflammation, the team placed them alongside white blood cells that produce the inflammation, then kick-started inflammatory processes. They found that the vesicles substantially reduced the production and secretion of multiple inflammation-causing proteins, along with the inflammation-related death of certain cells. And when the team injected mice with the vesicles, it found that the nanoparticles partly alleviated both inflammation and drug-induced liver injury.

The researchers identified microribonucleic acids, or microRNAs, as the main anti-inflammatory cargo within the vesicles, even pinpointing a particular microRNA most responsible for the effects. Further studies would need to establish whether and how vesicles consumed via honey actually curb inflammation in people, the researchers said. Studying how they interact with bacteria in the human gut could be a worthwhile starting point.



Bull Sharks Linger in Warming Sydney Waters

A man watches large waves on Bondi Beach in Sydney on July 2, 2025, as large swells and high winds hit the east coast of Australia. (Photo by SAEED KHAN / AFP)
A man watches large waves on Bondi Beach in Sydney on July 2, 2025, as large swells and high winds hit the east coast of Australia. (Photo by SAEED KHAN / AFP)
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Bull Sharks Linger in Warming Sydney Waters

A man watches large waves on Bondi Beach in Sydney on July 2, 2025, as large swells and high winds hit the east coast of Australia. (Photo by SAEED KHAN / AFP)
A man watches large waves on Bondi Beach in Sydney on July 2, 2025, as large swells and high winds hit the east coast of Australia. (Photo by SAEED KHAN / AFP)

Bull sharks are lingering off Sydney's beaches for longer periods each year as oceans warm, researchers said Friday, predicting they may one day stay all year.

The predators are migratory, swimming north in winter when Sydney's long-term ocean temperatures dip below 19 degrees Celsius (66 degrees Fahrenheit) to bask in the balmier waters off Queensland.

A team of scientists looked at 15 years of acoustic tracking of 92 tagged migratory sharks in an area including Bondi Beach and Sydney Harbour.

Records show the sharks now spend an average of 15 days longer off Sydney's coast in summer than they did in 2009, said James Cook University researcher Nicolas Lubitz.

"If they're staying longer, it means that people and prey animals have a longer window of overlap with them."

Shark attacks are rare in ocean-loving Australia, and most serious bites are from three species: bull sharks, great whites, and tiger sharks, according to a national database.

There have been more than 1,200 shark incidents around Australia since 1791, of which over 250 resulted in death.

Researchers found an average warming of 0.57C in Bondi for the October-May period between 2006 and 2024, said the study published in the peer-reviewed journal Science of The Total Environment.

Over a longer period, remotely sensed summer sea-surface temperatures in the area rose an average 0.67C between 1982 and 2024, they said.

"If this trend persists, which it likely will, it just means that these animals are going to spend more and more time towards their seasonal distributional limit, which currently is southern and central New South Wales," Lubitz said.

"So it could be that a few decades from now, maybe bull sharks are present year-round in waters off Sydney," he added.

"While the chances of a shark bite, and shark bites in Australia in general, remain low, it just means that people have to be more aware of an increased window of bull shark presence in coastal waters off Sydney."

Climate change could also change breeding patterns, Lubitz said, with early evidence indicating juvenile sharks were appearing in rivers further south.

There was some evidence as well that summer habitats for great whites, which prefer colder waters, were decreasing in northern New South Wales and Queensland, he said.

Tagged sharks trigger an alarm when they swim within range of a network of receivers dotted around parts of the Australian coast, giving people real-time warnings on a mobile app of their presence at key locations.