Endokrinologie und Diabetesforschung

Bee products and their biological effects

Aslı Ozkpok

Honeybees evolved with flowering plants 50 million years ago.While
they provide pollination of plants, they collect nectar, resinous,
pollen etc. from plants and turn them to the bee products for their
life. On the other hand, human beings discovered bee products
15000 years ago and used them for their own sake. Nowadays
bee products are divided into two groups. First one is; honeybees
collect from plants and partially add from their bodies. These are
honey, pollen, bee bread, and propolis. Second one is; honeybees
secrete them from their bodies or directly from the bee body. These
are royal jelly, beeswax, bee venom, and apilarnil. These products
show antioxidant, antibacterial, antifungal, antiviral, antitumoral
etc. beneficial biological activities in humans and so todays they
are very popular for the consumers. These products are also used
in medical treatment methods and this kind of treatment method
is called “Apitherapy”. Apitherapy is used by the doctors from all
over the world in the prevention and treatment of the diseases in
the last 50-60 years. In our studies of honey, pollen and propolis,
we have found that these products have very high antioxidant
values and vary according to the plant species they contain. We
also determined that in our microorganism studies propolis was
effective against Salmonella enteritidis, Listeria monocytogenes,
Peptostreptococcus anaerobius, Peptostreptococcus micros,
Lactobacillus acidophilus, Actinomyces naeslundii, Prevotella
oralis, Prevotella melaninogenica, Porphyromonas gingivalis,
Fusobacterium nucleatum, and Veillonella parvula bacteria. On
the other hand, we found that thyme honey, a monofloral honey
species, is effective against Staphylococcus aereus, Enterococcus
faecalis, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Acinetobacter baumannii and
Pseudomonas aeruginosa bacteria. Our work on bee products
continues and these excellent products will become a new source
of hope and health for the increasingly polluted and artificial world