Tilrich Puttu Honey

Stingless bee honey got its epithet ‘Puttu-then’ from the languages spoken around the Western Ghats of Kerala, India, which can be translated as ‘Mud hive honey’. Being stingless, Meliponines, or stingless honey bees, find their habitat in the lower reaches of the ground as a defence behaviour or mechanism. Their survival instincts make them build their combs inside crevices like tree trunks, termite mud, or deep burrows. Most of the stingless bee honey is harvested from the honeycombs found in the jungle inside the layers or crevices of the termite mud nests, or ‘Puttu’ in native tongues, thus the name ‘Puttu-then’. The mud nests of termites significantly influence the medicinal values of stingless bee honey as they are the richest sources of vital minerals and mysterious healing properties. Ayurveda and Siddha scholars strictly recommend the use of ‘Puttu-then’ in their medicinal concoctions for better results.