Abstract
Royal jelly (RJ) demand is growing every year and so is the market for functional foods in general. RJ is formed by different substances, mainly carbohydrates, proteins, and lipids, but also vitamins, minerals, and phenolic or volatile compounds in lower proportion. Major royal jelly proteins (MRJP) are, together with 10-hydroxy-2-decenoic acid (10-HDA), key substances of RJ due to their different biological properties. In particular, 10-HDA is a unique substance in this product. RJ has been historically employed as health enhancer and is still very relevant in China due to the traditional medicine and the apitherapy. Nowadays, it is mainly consumed as a functional food or is found in supplements and other formulations for its health-beneficial properties. Within these properites, anti-lipidemic, antioxidant, antiproliferative, antimicrobial, neuroprotective, anti-inflammatory, immunomodulatory, antiaging, and estrogenic activities have been reported for RJ or its specific components. This manuscript is aimed at reviewing the current knowledge on RJ components, their assessment in terms of authenticity, their biological activities, and related health applications.
Highlights
Published: 7 February 2021Royal jelly (RJ) is a yellowish-white, creamy, acidic secretion from the mandibular and hypopharyngeal glands of young worker bees of the Apis mellifera species [1,2,3]
Royal jelly is a complex mixture of substances which is commonly utilized by the nutraceutical and cosmetic industry
Its composition is mainly formed by water, proteins, carbohydrates, lipids and, in a minor proportion, trace minerals, vitamins, and phenols
Summary
Royal jelly (RJ) is a yellowish-white, creamy, acidic secretion from the mandibular and hypopharyngeal glands of young worker bees of the Apis mellifera species [1,2,3]. The literature usually states that all bee larvae, workers, and queens are fed with jelly for the first three days after hatching, and only the queen larvae continue to be fed with RJ throughout their development, a clarification must be stated. During the first 3 days, nurse bees provide two different larval foods for queen and workers—the former is called the RJ and the latter is the worker jelly. 12 to 18 h after hatching, are transferred using a grafting pen, to artificial queen cell bases to induce colony worker bees to produce RJ to feed the larvae. After 68–72 h (3 days), the larvae are removed with tweezers from the bases and the RJ is collected and transferred to a RJ bottle for storage. A wide variety of applications in the nutraceutical and cosmetic industries are addressed in the manuscript together with a brief revision of the main issues associated with RJ authentication
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