Table 5.

List of anticancer properties of MH, TH, KH, and SH.

Type of Honey	Type of Study	Finding	References
MH	In vivo	After cells were incubated with different concentrations of MH (range 0.3–2.5%) for 24–72 h, MH ameliorated breast cancer (MCF-7) and murine melanoma (B16.F1), colorectal carcinoma (CT26), and other cancer cells that proliferate dose-dependently via mediated the activation of a caspase 9-dependent apoptotic pathway, leading to the induction of caspase 3, reduced Bcl-2 expression, DNA fragmentation and cell death. This inhibitory effect on cell viability was dependent on both MH concentration and total incubation time.	[160,182]
MH	In vitro	MH exhibited profound inhibitory effects on cellular growth by reducing the proliferation ability, inducing apoptosis and arresting the cell cycle in a dose-dependent manner. MH induced cell cycle arrest in the S phase in HCT-116 cells, and simultaneously, in LoVo cells, it occurred in the G2/M phase through the modulation of cell cycle regulator genes (cyclin D1, cyclin E, CDK2, CDK4, p21, p27 and Rb). The expression of p-Akt was suppressed, whereas the expression of p-p38MAPK, p-Erk1/2 and endoplasmic stress markers (ATF6 and XBP1) was increased for apoptosis induction.	[159]
MH	In vitro	MH ameliorated human breast cancer MCF-7 cells. MH showed dose-dependent cytotoxicity towards MCF-7 cells after 24-h treatment.	[161]
TH	In vivo	The treatment groups were kindly received daily doses of 0.2, 1.0 and 2.0 g/kg body weight of TH, TH ameliorated breast cancer by increasing the susceptibility of proapoptotic proteins; apoptotic protease activating factor-1 (Apaf-1) interferon-gamma (IFN-γ) interferon gamma receptor-1 (IFNGR1) tumor protein P53 (p53) and decreased the expression of anti-apoptotic proteins; tumour necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α), cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) and B-cell lymphoma-extra-large (Bcl-xL).	[29,158]
TH	In vivo	The treatment groups were kindly given 0.2, 1.0 or 2.0 g/kg body weight/day of TH, TH alleviated breast cancers in rats by reducing cancer cell growth and enhanced histological grading.	[29,162]
TH	In vivo	The treatment groups were kindly treated with TH 1000 mg/kg and 2000 mg/kg by oral gavage for 10 weeks, TH showed chemo-preventive activities in oral squamous cell carcinoma-induced rats by suppressing cancer cell proliferation and activity and preserving cellular adhesion.	[29,168]
TH	In vitro	TH promoted apoptotic cell death induced by tamoxifen in breast cancer cell lines.	[29,165]
TH	In vitro	TH showed an anti-proliferative effect on oral squamous cell carcinoma and osteosarcoma cell lines by inducing early apoptosis.	[29,169]
TH	In vitro	TH demonstrated cytotoxic and apoptotic activities against human breast and cervical cancer cell lines with the mitochondrial apoptotic pathway’s involvement.	[29,164]
TH	In vitro	TH demonstrated apoptosis-inducing ability for acute and chronic myeloid leukaemia (K562 and MV4-11) cell lines.	[29,170]
TH	In vitro	TH protected keratinocytes from ultraviolet radiation-induced inflammation and DNA damage via modulation in early biomarkers of photocarcinogenesis.	[29,171]
TH	In vitro	TH was found to be cytotoxic to breast cancer cell line (MCF-7) but protected non-tumorigenic epithelial breast cell line (MCF-10A) from the toxic effects of tamoxifen active metabolite 4-hydroxytamoxifen.	[29,166]
TH	Human study	The treatment groups were kindly received oral TH 20 mg daily for 8 weeks, TH improved cancer-related fatigue and quality of life of patients with head and neck cancer post-chemotherapy or radiotherapy	[29,172]
TH	Human study	Combination of TH honey 20 g daily and anastrozole 1 mg daily showed more improvement in decreasing breast background parenchymal enhancement in patients with breast cancer than anastrozole alone.	[29,167]
TH	In vitro	TH has anticancer capabilities; increasing the concentration of TH reduces the viability of cancer cells	[173]
KH	In vivo	The treatment groups were kindly given oral administration of KH (1183 mg/kg body weight) twice daily for 8 weeks, KH possessed chemo-preventive properties in rats induced with colorectal cancer and also was found not toxic towards the animals.	[29,93]
KH	In vitro	KH was not cytotoxic to Human Gingival Fibroblast Cell Line (HGF-1 cell line)	[174]
KH	In vitro	KH possessed anticancer potential against human lung adenocarcinoma epithelial cell line (A549) as it was capable of inhibiting the cells growth in a dose and time-dependent manner. Moreover, KH was capable of inducing cell cycle arrest at G2/M phase.	[175]
SH	In vivo	The treatment groups were kindly given 20% of SH, SH has anticancer activity against HepG2 but not Hela cells. SH can be used as antimicrobial agent, but can be used as anticancer agent with care as it stimulated cell growth of some lines (e.g., Hala) and inhibited another (e.g., HepG2).	[150]
SH	In vitro	SH has possessed anticancer activity against breast adenocarcinoma (MDA-MB-231) cell lines and their ability to modulate gene expression of MMPs and TIMPs in human breast adenocarcinoma (MDA-MB-231) cell lines	[176]