Abstract
Beside honey, honeybees (Apis mellifera L.) are able to produce many byproducts, including bee pollen, propolis, bee bread, royal jelly, and beeswax. Even if the medicinal properties of these byproducts have been recognized for thousands of years by the ancient civilizations, in the modern era, they have a limited use, essentially as nutritional supplements or health products. However, these natural products are excellent sources of bioactive compounds, macro- and micronutrients, that, in a synergistic way, confer multiple biological activities to these byproducts, such as, for example, antimicrobial, antioxidant, and anti-inflammatory properties. This work aims to update the chemical and phytochemical composition of bee pollen, propolis, bee bread, royal jelly, and beeswax and to summarize the main effects exerted by these byproducts on human health, from the anticancer and immune-modulatory activities to the antidiabetic, hypolipidemic, hypotensive, and anti-allergic properties.
Highlights
Bees are a large group of social insects belonging to the Apidae family, which includes honey or domestic bees, stingless bees, and other specific groups
This review aims to present the nutritional and phytochemical contents of bee pollen (BP), propolis, bee bread (BB), royal jelly (RJ), and beeswax and to summarize the biological properties played by these products, given the urgent need to find new remedies against the most common human pathologies, such as metabolic and cardiovascular diseases
Bee pollen (BP) is produced as a result of the collection of pollen grains by bees that are agglutinated using salivary secretions, nectar, and/or honey to form a granule of ∼1.4−4 mm in size, which is stored in the alveoli of the hive until consumption
Summary
Bees are a large group of social insects belonging to the Apidae family, which includes honey or domestic bees, stingless bees, and other specific groups. The most famous and widely appreciated honeybee product is honey, a complex mixture of nutrients and bioactive compounds with multiple biological activities.[1−7] besides honey, bees are able to make several other types of products, including bee pollen (BP), propolis, bee bread (BB), royal jelly (RJ), and beeswax (BW) These products may derive from pollen grains, nectars, and other plant materials alone or mixed with the bee salivary gland secretions and plant secretions.[8] In the last years, they have attracted the interest of the scientific community worldwide: numerous studies have found beneficial effects exerted by these natural products on human health, highlighting their potential use as active pharmaceutical ingredients.[8] In addition, some efforts have been done to introduce these products in clinical practice, but these attempts have almost failed because of their high chemical, nutritional, and phytochemical variabilities that depend upon several parameters, including, for example, the honeybee varieties, the plant, the geographical area, and the seasons, which makes the medicinal standardization difficult to perform. This review aims to present the nutritional and phytochemical contents of BP, propolis, BB, RJ, and beeswax and to summarize the biological properties played by these products, given the urgent need to find new remedies against the most common human pathologies, such as metabolic and cardiovascular diseases
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