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The Journal of the Royal Institute of Thailand Volume IV - 2012 85  away from agricultural areas. Therefore, this honey is clean from pesticides and chemical fertilizer. An example of organic honey is honey derived from white fl owers or wild fl owers such as Plao fl owers. In future, the demand of organic honey in foreign countries would increase, since more people are seeking for pure natural honey. Bene fi ts of honey have been known and aware of since ancient times. Believing that honey could cure fatigue, Greek athletes would drink honey before any Olympic competitions. Egyptian doctors used honey to heal wounds from surgeries and sterilize germs before the discovery of bacteria. Through much more advance in technologies than in the past, the scientists found that honey’s ability of bacteria anti-growing are due to its special attributes which are its low moisture and high osmotic pressure. These two attributes help osmosing water out of Microbial cell and making these germs die from water shortage. Due to these supporting reasons, the modern medicine accepts the usage of honey to heal some certain wounds especially wounds from surgeries and chronic ulcers of diabetic patients. Different kinds of fl owers that bees used to produce honey cause honey to have different scent and physical characteristics. Natural honey has a very sweet taste, pleasant aroma, and color that varies from light golden yellow to dark brown (depending on sources and types of plants). In Thailand, natural honey is obtained from hive bees, dwarf honeybees, and giant honeybees. In the past, Thai people mostly used honey as herbal medicine rather than eating as food. Nowadays, more people are aware of bene fi ts from honey and also consume greater amount of honey; therefore, there is a signi fi cant increase in honey demand which leads to the origination of beekeeping industry. Bees that are used in Thai beekeeping industry normally are Thai or Western hive bees. Honey derived from beekeeping business is exactly the same as the one that is collected in nature. Moreover, this honey can be speci fi ed which sources of fl owers are required such as honey from longan, rambutan, or lychee fl owers. In order to produce organic honey, bees are kept in an organic fruit orchard, using the organic beekeeping method. Unlike bees in the wild which have to fi nd food themselves, domestic bees are carefully taken care of and therefore can produce more honey. Siriwat Wongsiri, Chanpen Chanchoa and Pichai Kongpitak