Bee Products: Properties, Applications, and Apitherapy

Abstract

This chapter discusses different bee products such as venom, wax, brood, propolis, and jelly. Honey and beeswax are the main bee products used by humans. Bee venom is a secretion from the venom glands of the worker or queen of a species of honey bee (. Apis ); it is not produced by stingless bees (Meliponinae). The main components of commercial freeze-dried venom from Apis mellifera worker bees include 15% to 17% enzymes, including phospholipase and hyaluronidase; 48% to 58% small proteins, including especially mellitin; 3% physiologically active amines, including histamine; 0.8% to 1.0% amino acids, and numerous minor components. Bee brood is a useful source of protein to hunter gatherers in many parts of Asia and Africa, and honey bee larvae have now been produced commercially and marketed either raw or cooked. Beeswax is secreted by workers of most Apidae, who use it to build combs of cells in their nests, for rearing brood and for storing food. Propolis is the material that honey bees and some other bees can collect from living plants, which they use alone or with beeswax in the construction and adaptation of their nests. Royal jelly is secreted by the hypopharyngeal gland located below the pharynx in the head of young worker honey bees. © 2009 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.