What the texts say
The clause sits in Charaka's list of incompatible foods, and its word is maraṇāya, "for death". It covers two cases: honey that is hot, and honey given to someone suffering from heat. The same verse gives a separate warning against hot water drunk after honey. Sushruta (Sutra 20.14) also warns against honey taken with hot things.[1][2]
The modern view
Two rat studies give mixed results. In the first, 36 rats were split into six groups for six weeks: ordinary diet, honey, honey heated to 140 C, ghee, honey with ghee, or heated honey with heated ghee. Separate lab tests on the honey itself heated it to 60 C and to 140 C. Heating raised a compound called HMF in the honey, but the rats showed no change in food intake, weight gain or organ weights. In the second, 40 rats were given honey low in HMF, stored honey, heated honey, or HMF by injection, for five weeks. Several blood chemistry values changed, and the injected group fared worst. Injected HMF is not the same as eating honey, and neither study tested people.[3][4]
Animal
Questions people ask
Related
Honey and hot water (shahad aur garam pani)
Charaka lists hot water after honey as incompatible, and Sushruta makes the same rule. The Ashtanga Hridaya names cold water as honey's after-drink.
FoodHoney in hot weather (garmi mein shahad)
Charaka warns against honey for someone suffering from heat. Sushruta, as his commentator Dalhana reads him, extends it to summer and autumn.
FoodHoney and ghee in equal parts
Charaka and Sushruta both say honey and ghee taken in equal amounts are incompatible. Charaka files it under incompatibility by quantity.
FoodCurd and honey (dahi aur shahad)
Charaka names honey as one of the things curd should be eaten with, alongside ghee, sugar, green gram soup and amla.
Sources
- Charaka Samhita, Sutra Sthana 26.84 (Atreyabhadrakapyiya Adhyaya).
- Sushruta Samhita, Sutra Sthana 20.14, NIIMH e-text.
- Annapoorani A, Anilakumar KR, Khanum F, Murthy NA, Bawa AS. Studies on the physicochemical characteristics of heated honey, honey mixed with ghee and their food consumption pattern by rats. Ayu. 2010;31:141-146. PMID 22131701.
- Özkök D, Silici S. Effects of honey HMF on enzyme activities and serum biochemical parameters of Wistar rats. Environmental Science and Pollution Research International. 2016;23:20186-20193. PMID 27439754.
Updated 4 November 2026