The Importance of Bees
Bees are a vital part of the environment. While collecting nectar to take back to the hive, they also get pollen stuck to their hairy bodies. As they move from flower to flower, the pollen gets transferred to other plants. This ensures the survival of plant species by fertilizing them and aiding in reproduction. Bees also produce several products that are useful to humans in medicinal and nutritional ways.
Products Created by Bees
Beeswax
Beeswax is a versatile resource that bees use to create the cell walls of honeycomb. We use it in a variety of products including candles, artificial fruit and flowers, furniture and floor waxes, leather dressings, waxed paper, lithographic inks, cosmetics, and ointments.
Royal Jelly
Royal jelly (RJ) is a highly nutritious natural product with great potential for use in medicine, cosmetics, and as a health-promoting food. RJ shows numerous physiological and pharmacological properties, including vasodilatory, hypotensive, antihypercholesterolaemic, antidiabetic, immunomodulatory, anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, anti-aging, neuroprotective, antimicrobial, estrogenic, anti-allergic, anti-osteoporotic, and anti-tumor effects.
Propolis
Propolis is a natural resinous mixture produced by honey bees from substances collected from parts of plants, buds, and exudates. Bees use propolis in the construction and repair of their hives for sealing openings and cracks and smoothing out the internal walls, a protective barrier against external invaders, and protection against weathering threats like wind and rain. Current antimicrobial applications of propolis include formulations for cold syndrome (upper respiratory tract infections, common cold, and flu-like infections), wound healing, treatment of burns, acne, herpes simplex and genitalis, and neurodermatitis.
Bee Venom
Numerous studies dealing with the positive assets of bee venom (BV) indicate its beneficial properties. The usage of bee products to prevent the occurrence of diseases and for their treatment is often referred to as apitherapy and is based mainly on the experience of the traditional system of medical practice in diverse ethnic communities. Today, a large number of studies are focused on the antitumor effects of BV, which are mainly attributed to its basic polypeptide melittin (MEL). Previous studies have indicated that BV and its major constituent MEL cause a strong toxic effect on different cancer cells, such as liver, lung, bladder, kidney, prostate, breast, and leukemia cells, while a less pronounced effect was observed in normal non-target cells.
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