Background: For a long time, honey was purportedly helpful to prevent drunkenness and relieve hangover symptoms. However, few of the assertions have experienced scientific assessment. The present study examined the effects of honey on intoxicated male mice.
Methods: Low or high doses of lychee flower honey (2.19 or 4.39 g/kg body weight, respectively) were single orally administrated 30 min before the ethanol intoxication of mice, followed by recording the locomotor activity by autonomic activity instrument and observing the climbing ability after alcohol. On the other hand, 2.19 g/kg honey was single orally administrated 5 min after the ethanol intoxication of mice, followed by determining the ethanol concentration in mice blood. In addition, subacute alcoholism mice models were developed and after the treatment of 2.19 g/kg honey s.i.d for successive three days, the level of serum malondialdehyde (MDA) and glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px) activity were detected in the models.
Results: Both of the two doses of honey increased the autonomic activity of alcoholized mice. Furthermore, the treatment of 2.19 g/kg honey could decrease significantly the blood ethanol concentration in intoxicated mice. The anti-intoxication activity of honey could be due to the effect of the fructose contained in the honey. Meanwhile, honey could not affect the serum MDA level and GSH-Px activity in alcoholism mice models.
Conclusion: Honey indeed possesses anti-intoxication activity.