“False dittany honey” could become another special product of Chania, like the PDO “Pine-thyme honey of Crete”, it was claimed at a seminar which took place on 2nd July in the conference centre of the Mediterranean Agronomic Institute of Chania (MAICH). The event presented the results of a programme aimed at identifying and promoting the special characteristics of honey produced from the plant Ballota pseudodictamnus, or false dittany, which is found mainly in Western Crete.

The 2.5 year programme included analyses carried out at the Apiculture Laboratory of the Faculty of Agriculture at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. In presenting the results of the analyses, Assistant Professor Chrysoula Tanakaki said: “False dittany honey has very good prospects of being taken up if people learn about it. … Its special character, with all its historical background, lends itself to promotion, since it grows almost exclusively in Chania.”

“Our aim was to identify false dittany honey, which we did not know about since until recently it was simply classified as a multifloral honey,” the professor said. “Mixtures of false dittany and thyme were found and analysed, and proposals will follow for the identification the characteristics [of the former] which can be used for its promotion to the public, characteristics which can be incorporated into Greek and Community law.”

Describing the characteristics of false dittany honey, she said that it is “a light-coloured honey, mild and free-running, which appeals to people who are not used to darker honeys such as tourists from northern countries. It is sweet-tasting and very clear. It has very good prospects of adoption if people learn about it.”

MAICH biologist Panagiota Gotsiou gave details of the programme to identify false dittany honey. “The programme lasted 2.5 years and we are very satisfied with the results of our collaboration with the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. We were responding to the requests of beekeepers themselves to study this honey, which is produced in large quantities in different areas of Chania.

“We managed to identify its special characteristics (organoleptic and physico-chemical), so that they can be published and become known, so that the honey can be circulated in the future with the label ‘false dittany honey’, since not many people know about it, as it has hitherto been marketed as a multifloral honey. We believe that with its special character and background – the plant grows almost exclusively in Chania – it has prospects of being sold as a new, special product with an unusual taste.”

The honey’s value
Speaking of the honey’s importance as a nutritional supplement, Emeritus Professor at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki Andreas Thrasivoulou presented data from clinical studies demonstrating its antioxidant properties and showing that it is ideal for diabetics and also for treating wounds. Regional Councillor Spyros Balantinos said that the research programme, funded by the Regional Authority, had produced encouraging results and that false dittany as a plant was “resistant to climate change and could prove a solution for beekeepers”.

Anna Daskalaki, president of the Cretan branch of the Geotechnical Chamber of Greece, highlighted the Geotechnical Chamber’s proposal for a Pancretan honey competition, as well as the support of the island’s geotechnicians for efforts to develop apiculture. President of the “Melissa” Beekeepers’ Association Theodoros Viglis declared his support for the promotion of false dittany honey as a special product of the beekeepers of Chania.
(Haniotika Nea, 03/07/24)

Background to the research programme
An article published on cretanbusiness.gr a year ago, reporting on the progress of the research programme, described the background to the decision to investigate false dittany honey, and the conditions under which it is produced in Western Crete. The following are some of the main points made in the article.

False dittany honey is a type of honey which is produced locally, only in certain areas of the Nomos of Chania and, as far as is known, nowhere else in the world. Depending on the conditions each year, moderate or substantial quantities are produced in late spring to early summer, chiefly on the Rodopou peninsula, Gramvousa, Κeramia, Theriso, Apokoronas and in smaller quantities on the outskirts of the city of Chania and in some areas of Sfakia.

In most of these areas there are also large populations of thyme, which starts to bloom a few days before the end of the flowering of false dittany. The beekeepers traditionally transfer their hives there to prepare for the production of thyme honey and sometimes, when false dittany is highly productive, they have to make an initial harvest before the thyme, so a “pure” single-flower honey from the plant is produced. Mostly, however, they leave whatever honey has been collected from the false dittany and other local flowers in the honeycombs and make only one harvest after the thyme has finished flowering. As a result a honey which is a natural mixture of thyme and false dittany is produced.

According to the experts, the single flower honey from false dittany is light in colour, from a light yellow to light amber, quite sweet and mild in taste, without intense aromas. Until recently, however, false dittany honey was only known amongst the beekeepers and residents of the areas mentioned. It was not known either to consumers or scientists and honey analysts, since it was not distributed with an attribution of botanical origin on the label or on invoices, but merely as “multifloral honey”.

Since in recent years extreme weather conditions have created increasing problems in the production of thyme honey, while the output of nectar from false dittany in Chania has remained fairly stable, the local beekeepers decided to find out more about the false dittany honey they produce so that they could promote it as such on the market.

Nomenclature of the plant
The full scientific name of the false dittany of Chania is Ballota pseudodictamnus (L.) Benth. subsp. pseudodictamnus. It belongs to the Lamiaceae or Labiatae family which includes most of the well-known aromatic plants and widely used culinary herbs such as basil, mint, rosemary, sage, savory, marjoram, oregano, hyssop, thyme and lavender.

False dittany is also known in Chania and other areas of Crete as “wild malotira ” or “stinking malotira” as well as other names based on its traditional uses. In some areas of Chania it was traditionally used to fill pillows because of its soft branches and leaves, hence the local name “kalokoimithia” which means “good sleep”. It was also called “lychnaraki” (“little lamp”) as the calyx of the flowers was used to light oil lamps.

Another English name for the plant is Greek horehound. Since neither “false dittany” nor any of the other non-scientific names sound particularly mellifluous in English, it will be interesting to see what name is adopted for international marketing of the honey once this is developed.