Honey and beeswax are the main bee products used by humans.Bee brood has been eaten by humans since ancient times in some Asian countries, but until the 1900s only honey and beeswax were produced commercially. Then in the 1950s, the price of honey on the world market was depressed by surplus production, and beekeepers in certain technologically advanced countries, seeking ways of diversifying the sources of income from their bees, explored the commercialization of royal jelly, bee venom, pollen, and propolis.
BEE VENOM
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- 17% enzymes, including phospholipase and hyaluronidase; 48- 58% small proteins, including especially mellitin; 3% physiologically active amines, including histamine; 0.8-1.0% amino acids, and numerous minor components. Queen venom differs somewhat from worker venom in its composition and its pattern of change with the age of the bee. A few studies have been made on the venom of other Apis species; for instance, toxicity has been reported to be similar in venoms from A. mellifera and A. dorsata, less in A. florea venom but twice as high in A. cerana venom.
Bee venom is by far the most pharmacologically active product from honey bees. The general mechanism of its action on humans who are not hypersensitive is as follows. Hyaluronidase breaks down hyaluronic acid polymers that serve as intercellular cement, and the venom spreads through the tissue. (Protective antibodies that develop in the serum of most beekeepers can effectively neutralize hyaluroni-dase, preventing the spread of the venom.) A protease inhibitor prevents enzymatic destruction of hyaluronidase. Simultaneously, the mast cell degranulating peptide penetrates the membrane of the mast cells, creating pores. This releases histamine, which (in combination with some small molecules of the venom) contributes to the swelling and flare, and the local itching and burning sensation. As venom penetrates blood vessels and enters the circulatory system, phospholipase A and mellitin (as a micelle, a colloidal-sized aggregate of molecules) act synergistically to rupture blood cells.
When only a few stings are received, the action just described is mostly localized, and actual toxic effects are insignificant. After massive stinging (or injection of venom directly into the circulatory system), the action may become widespread and toxic effects severe, particularly when significant amounts of venom enter the circulatory system. Apamine acts as a poison to the central nervous system, and both mellitin and phospholipase A are highly toxic. Large concentrations of histamine are produced and contribute to overall toxicity. The role of other components is unknown.
Only a very small number of people are allergic (hypersensitive) to insect venom, between 0.35 and 0.40% of the total population in one U.S. survey. In a person allergic to bee venom, hyaluronidase may participate immediately in an antigen-antibody reaction, triggering an allergic response; both mellitin and phospholipase A can also produce allergic reactions. There may be antigen-antibody reactions to any or all of the components mentioned. Severe reactions can result in death from anaphylactic shock.
Antihistamines can give some protection to a moderately hypersensitive person if taken before exposure to stings. Systemic reactions following a sting should be treated immediately with adrenaline; extremely prompt medical treatment is essential for acute anaphylaxis.
Some allergy clinics provide carefully regulated courses of venom injection, which can decrease sensitivity to the venom; various types of immunotherapy (desensitization) have been used, involving the application of a series of graded doses of pure venom, and these can be effective in 95% of cases. If a beekeeper or another member of the household develops serious hypersensitivity to bee stings, an allergy specialist may be able to recommend a course of desensitiza-tion that will allow the beekeeper to continue.
Germany was probably the first country to produce bee venom commercially. Between 1930 and 1937, girls stationed in front of hives would pick up one worker bee at a time and press it so that it stung into a fabric tissue that absorbed the venom; the venom was extracted from the fabric with a solvent (distilled water), which later was removed by freeze-drying, leaving the venom as a crystalline powder.
A more recent method is to use a bare wire stretched to and fro across a thin membrane mounted on a horizontal frame placed directly in front of a hive entrance. When a low voltage is applied to the ends of the wire, a few “guard” bees are shocked; they sting into the membrane and also release alarm pheromone that quickly alerts other bees to sting into the membrane as well. The bees can withdraw their stings and are unharmed, and the drops of venom released are removed from the underside of the membrane; in hot weather they dry and can be scraped off.
BEE BROOD
Bee brood (immature bees) was probably a useful source of protein to hunter-gatherers in many parts of Asia and Africa, and honey bee larvae have now produced commercially, and marketed either raw or cooked. Mature A. mellifera larvae have been found to contain about 60% as much protein as beef and about 30% more fat (fresh weight). Pupae contain somewhat more protein and less fat. Both larvae and pupae contain vitamins A and D. Such bee brood is eaten in parts of Asia (e.g., Korea, China, Japan, Laos, Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam) but not in India, Pakistan, or Bangladesh. Some eastern Mediterranean religions forbade the eating of certain insects because these were regarded as unclean. One of the Dead Sea scrolls, from about 200 to 100 B.C., had the prohibition: ” Let no man defile his soul with any living being or creeping thing by eating of them, from the larvae of bees [in honey] to all the living things that creep in water.” (The digestive system of any animal was considered to be unclean, and it was impractical to remove these organs from individual bees.)
BEESWAX
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. Workers are female members of a colony of bees, active in foraging or nesting, but laying no eggs or only a few compared with a queen. The term “beeswax” is commonly used for the wax from honey bees (Apis), especially that from Apis mellifera, which is the basis of the world’s beeswax industry.
Production, Secretion, and Use of Beeswax by A. mellifera
Beeswax is secreted by four pairs of wax glands situated on the anterior part of the worker’s last four normal sternal plates (i.e., the ventral portion); the secreted wax hardens into thin scales. In A. mel-lifera workers, the glands increase in secretory activity during the first 9 days or so after the adult bee has emerged from her cell. They usually start to regress at 17 days of age, but may be regenerated later if the colony needs new comb. Honey bees construct their combs of beeswax and also use this substance with propolis to seal small cracks in their nest structure or hive. The requirements of the colony largely determine the amount of wax secreted by its bees. Calculations have shown that an A. mellifera worker is likely to have the potential to secrete about half her body weight in wax during her lifetime.
Composition and Properties of Beeswax
The major components of A. mellifera beeswax include monoesters, diesters, hydrocarbons, and free acids, which together make up more than half the total weight. Over 200 minor components have also been identified. Of the physical properties of beeswax, its thermal properties are of special practical importance, particularly the wide temperature range between its becoming plastic (32°C) and melting (61-66°C). Its relative density at 15-25°C is 0.96 and its refractive index at 75°C is 1.44.
Many pesticides used to control mites in the hive can contaminate beeswax.
Harvesting and Processing
In the hive, the purest beeswax is that which has recently been secreted: in “cappings” with which cells have been sealed, and in recently built comb. Wax scraped from hive walls or frame bars may be mixed with propolis. Old, dark combs in which brood has been reared are of least value.
When a beekeeper harvests combs of honey from the hives, the honey is first extracted from the combs. Then the wax is melted and the liquid wax separated from any contaminants. On a small scale, clean wax from hives may be melted and strained through cloth, or a “solar wax extractor” may be used, in which the wax pieces are spread out on a sloping metal base in a shallow container with a double glass top, to be melted by radiation from the sun. The liquid wax flows into a container; any contaminants settle at the bottom, and clear wax flows out through an outlet near the top.
In some commercial wax extractors the wax is heated with water, floats to the top, and flows out through an appropriately placed opening. More efficient devices use a steam press. The percentage of beeswax extracted from the initial material varies according to the source of the wax and the method of extraction.
Uses
Beeswax has a very rich history, with a far wider range of uses than any other bee product. In the past, beeswax was especially valued for candles, because it has a higher melting point than many other waxes, and so the candles remain upright in hot weather. Beeswax was also used for modeling and for casting. Some of the world’s finest bronze statues and gold ornaments have been made by the lost-wax process in which a beeswax model is made and encased in mud or plaster that is allowed to dry; the whole is then heated, the molten wax allowed to escape, and molten metal poured in. The metal solidifies in the exact shape of the original beeswax cast, and the casing material is then broken away.
In the batik method of dyeing cloth, and in etching on a glass or metal surface, beeswax can be used as a “resist,” applied to certain areas of a surface to protect them from reaction during a subsequent process.
One of the most important current uses of beeswax is in ointments, emollient skin creams, and lotions. It also is still used in polishes and other protective coatings, and as a lubricant in the armament and other industries. Its dielectric properties have led to its use in electrical engineering.
World Production and Trade
Beekeeping with modern movable-frame hives aims to maximize honey production, and wax production is suppressed by providing the bees with sheets of ready-built wax comb foundation in frames. In experiments in Egypt, wax production in modern hives was only 0.4-0.6% of honey production, whereas in traditional hives it was 9- 11%.
Bees secrete beeswax more readily in hot than in cold climates, and most surplus beeswax is produced in those tropical regions where traditional hives are still used. According to export figures published in 1990, relating to the preceding decade, the three regions producing most beeswax annually were Asia, Central America, and Africa (15.9 X 103, 10.5 X 103, and 8.7 X 103tonnes, respectively). Major importing countries (in 1984) were France, German Federal Republic, the United States, and Japan.
Wax from Other Bees
Because the waxes of different species of social bees differ slightly, if A. mellifera wax is mixed with that of other bees, its characteristics are altered. Melting points have been reported as follows for wax from other species of honey bees: A. dorsata, 60°C; A.florea, 63°C; A. cerana. 65°C; stingless bees, Meliponinae: Trigona spp. (India), 66.5°C; T. beccarii (Africa), 64.6°C; T. denoiti (Africa), 64.4°C; and bumble bees, Bombus. 34-35°C. The temperature in a bumble bee nest is much lower than that in a honey bee nest.
POLLEN
Protein is required by young adult honey bees, and it is an i mportant component of the food they give to larvae. It is obtained from pollen (microspores of seed plants) that older bees collect from flowers and store in the nest. In one study on A. mellifera in the United States, bee-collected (air-dried) pollens contained 7-30% crude protein and 19-41% carbohydrates (mostly sugars from honey that bees mixed with the pollen). Pollen also contains minerals (it has an ash content of 1-6%), vitamins, enzymes, free amino acids, organic acids, flavonoids, and growth regulators.
When a worker honey bee moves past the anthers of flowers, pollen becomes trapped by her body hairs. She leaves the flowers and, with special movements of her legs, passes the pollen backward to bristles on the tibiae of her hind legs. She packs it into a “pollen load” on each of these legs, moistening it with a little nectar or honey in the process. The pollen loads carried by a foraging bee have a variety of colors, which provide clues to the plant sources.
It is relatively easy for a beekeeper to collect the pollen being brought into hives by bees: a pollen trap, fixed over the hive entrance, incorporates a grid (or two grids) through which incoming bees must push, and while they do this most pollen loads are knocked from their hind legs and drop into a tray below, although some bees get through the trap with their pollen loads. The beekeeper needs to ensure that the colony always has enough pollen to rear sufficient brood to maintain its population. (A colony can be made to collect more pollen by giving it extra combs of young brood to rear.) In 1990, pollen was known to be produced commercially in Europe (seven countries), the Americas (five), Asia (four), and Africa (one), and also Australia, where Western Australia alone produced 60-130 tonnes a year.
Pollen is used as a dietary supplement for humans and domestic animals, as well as for feeding to a honey bee colony to increase its brood production. Pollen from specific plant species (or cultivars) is also used for fruit pollination, in plant breeding programs, and in the study and treatment of allergic conditions such as hay fever.
PROPOLIS
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. Most of the plant sources are trees and bushes. The material collected may be a wound exudate (resin and latex) or a secretion (lipophilic substances, mucilage, and gum). Propolis thus has a much more varied origin than any other material collected by honey bees. Analyses of various samples (mostly of unknown plant origin) have shown the presence of over 100 compounds, including especially flavonoids.
A bee that collects propolis carries it back to the nest on her hind legs. She goes to a place in the hive where propolis is being used and remains there until her load is taken from her by bees using it. The propolis is mainly collected in the morning and used in the hive in the afternoon.
Where propolis is available, A. mellifera uses it for stopping up cracks, restricting the dimensions of its flight entrance, and other minor building works. Observations on both tropical and temperate-zone A. cerana indicate that this species does not collect or use propolis, even in a region where A. mellifera does, but uses beeswax instead. Propolis is sometimes used by A. dorsata to strengthen the attachment of the comb to its supporting branch. It is probably essential to A. florea for protecting its nest from ants. These bees build two rings of sticky propolis round the branch that supports the nest, one at each end of the comb attachment, and may ” freshen ” the propolis surface so that it remains sticky and ants cannot cross it.
To collect propolis from a hive, the beekeeper inserts a contrivance, such as a flat horizontal grid having slits 2-3 mm wide that will stimulate the bees to close up the gaps with propolis. On removal from the hive, the contrivance is cooled in a freezer. The propolis then becomes brittle, and a sharp blow fractures it off in pieces, which can be stored for up to a year in a plastic bag.
The total commercial world production of propolis may be between 100 and 200 tonnes a year. China produces more propolis (from hives of introduced A. mellifera) than any other country; some South American countries are next in importance. Most importing countries are in Europe.
Propolis has various pharmacological properties, partly from its flavonoid content. It is used in cosmetic and healing creams, throat pastilles, and chewing gum. A few people (in the United Kingdom about one beekeeper in 2000) are allergic (hypersensitive) to propolis, and contact with it leads to dermatitis.
Stingless bees mix much propolis with the wax they secrete before they use it in nest construction; the mixture is called cerumen.
ROYAL JELLY
Royal jelly is secreted by the hypopharyngeal gland located below the pharynx in the head of young worker honey bees (brood food glands). The term royal jelly was probably first used by Frangois Huber in Switzerland in 1792, as gelee royale. Young A. mellifera worker bees secrete royal jelly into a queen cell, an extra large brood cell in which a female larva is fed on special food and develops into a queen (a sexually reproductive female). The workers then seal the larva inside, and it develops into a pupa and then an adult queen. A worker or drone larva receives food similar to royal jelly only for the first 3 days, and thereafter modified less rich food, which includes pollen and honey. A queen larva consumes about 25% more food than a worker larva, and its weight increases by 1300 times in 6 days.
Composition of A. mellifera Royal Jelly
Royal jelly, like beeswax, is a secretion of worker bees and as such has a more constant composition than honey or pollen, which are derived from plants. Of the components of royal jelly, the most interesting are perhaps 10-hydroxy-2-decenoic acid and vitamins in the B complex, which include thiamine, riboflavin, niacin, pyridoxine, pantothenic acid, biotin, and folic acid. Royal jelly contains very little vitamin C, and vitamins A and E are absent or nearly so; vitamins D and K are probably also absent.
Production of A. mellifera Royal Jelly by Humans
Well before the 20th century, the dramatic effect of royal jelly on female larvae that developed into queens created much interest. In the 1950s, royal jelly was the first of the newer hive products to be exploited. One factor that stimulated beekeepers to move toward royal jelly production was that it could be accomplished in areas where plant sources of nectar and pollen were inadequate for profitable honey production. Provided colonies were fed sufficient sugar syrup and pollen, they could be managed so that they could produce royal jelly for the beekeeper. However, to produce it, skilled operators must carry out a sequence of labor-intensive procedures tied to a rigorous timetable.
Each hive used may be organized as follows. The queen of each colony is confined in a lower brood box by a queen excluder placed over it. Above the excluder is a box of honeycombs, and above that the box in which the royal jelly will be produced. This contains framed combs of honey and pollen and also unsealed brood to attract nurse bees. Some of the frames of comb are replaced by frames containing three crossbars, each supporting on its underside about 15 ” queen cups,” synthetic shallow wax cups with an opening on the bottom, similar to the cells that bees build when they start to rear queens. An operator transfers a worker larva 18-24 h of age from a worker comb into each queen cup, using a “grafting tool” that is rather like an insect pin bent into the required shape and mounted on a handle. There are a hundred or more of the queen cups in the box.
On three successive days a frame of “grafted” cells is placed in the top brood box. On day 4, the cells in the first frame contain the maximum amount of royal jelly (e.g., 235 mg each), so the operator removes the frame and extracts the royal jelly from the cups in it by aspiration. Fresh larvae are grafted into them, and the frame is reinserted in the hive, thus restarting the cycle.
The extracted royal jelly is strained to remove any wax and refrigerated as soon as possible; it can be kept for up to a year at 2°C.
Properties and Uses
Royal jelly shows wide-spectrum activity against bacteria (although none against fungi). It has been reported in at least one study to have bactericidal activity on Bacillus metiens; Escherichia coli; Mycobacterium tuberculosis, which causes tuberculosis; Proteus vulgaris; Staphylococcus aureus; and a Streptococcus species.
Royal jelly achieved, and has maintained, a place on the world market as a specialized dietary supplement and in cosmetics; by 1990, the annual production was probably between 500 and 600 tonnes. Some scientists have documented a reported feeling of general well-being in humans after consumption of royal jelly, thus justifying its use in anorexia, emaciation, or loss of muscular strength; it has also been recommended for older people. Many of the reported effects of royal jelly on humans and other mammals may, however, be produced much less expensively by other substances.
A queen honey bee differs from a worker in her length of life (several years instead of several weeks or months) and in her reproductive ability. Some people therefore believe that royal jelly can also prolong the life of humans, as well as improving their vigor and sex life. However, these properties have not been substantiated.
World Trade
Royal jelly production was already proving profitable in France in 1953, and 1.5 tonnes a year was being produced by 1958. Production was established in Cuba before 1957, and in the early 1960s, 12 other countries were reported to produce it, including France and Japan (1.5fonnes each), Canada, Israel, Taiwan, and Korea. The price at that time was from U.S.$220 to $500 per kilogram. By 1984, China and Taiwan were producing 400 and 234 tonnes a year, respectively, and the world price had dropped to U.S.$70 per kilogram. Eastern Asia is still the main center of the world’s royal jelly production, and Japan is both a large producer and a large importer and consumer.
