Table 5.

Anti-nociceptive potentials of honey supplementation on animal models.

Authors (Year)	Type of source	Purpose	Mechanism
Aziz et al. (2014)	Animal study (rat)	To examine the preemptive effects of administering different doses of honey and prednisolone on the nociceptive response in male Sprague–Dawley rats.	Honey’s antioxidant capabilities may potentially contribute to its analgesic benefits by the reduction in CGRP and an increase in (GABAB2) receptor expression in the spinal cord
Abd Aziz et al. (2019)	Animal study (rat)	To determine whether honey could prevent the altered nociceptive behavior, with its associated changes of oxidative stress markers and morphology of the spinal cord, among the offspring of prenatally stressed rats	Flavonoids from honey consumption decrease the release of SOD-mediated oxidative stress and downregulate NMDA receptors in the central nervous system.
Mohd Shafie et al. (2022)	Animal study (rat)	To investigate whether oxidative stress in the thalamus was correlated with the pain behavior score in the rapid eye movement (REM) sleep-deprived rat model.	Honey supplementation lowered oxidative stress in REMs rat models’ thalamus, modulating pain behavior in the formalin test.
Hasim et al. (2020b)	Animal study (rat)	To determine whether the modulation of nociceptive behavior by honey was mediated by modulating changes in the histology, oxidative stress parameters, and NMDA receptors in the thalamus of the rat offspring.	The delivery of honey to pregnant dams increased antioxidant activity and decreased oxidant levels in the rat progeny.
Owoyele et al. (2013)	Animal study (rat)	To investigate the analgesic and anti-inflammatory effects of honey and the effects of concurrent administration of autonomic nervous system blocking drugs.	Honey supplementation lowered the perception of pain, particularly inflammatory pain in which the use of tamsulosin and propranolol spread the impact of honey.
Hasim et al. (2020a)	Animal study (rat)	To compare the antinociceptive and antioxidative effects of honey and vitamin C in formalin-induced pain in the rat.	One of the antioxidants found in honey is vitamin C and vitamin C has been proven to reduce nociceptive behavior by increasing the antioxidant catalase level.