Royal Jelly
Description
Bee pollen contains virtually all of the essential nutrients, including protein and fat (lipids), required for production of royal jelly - a milky-white secretion. Royal jelly is required for the nutrition of the queen imagos, larval queen and the young worker larvae, and is fed to these developmental stages by nurse bees.
Royal jelly contains considerable amounts of carbohydrates, primarily fructose, glucose and sucrose. Royal jelly also contains 10-hydroxy-2-decenoic acid, an acid which has not been detected in regular bee pollen. 10-hydroxy-2-decenoic acid is produced by nurse bees from pollen sucrose and nectar sucrose. Other nutritional substances may be present in royal jelly, but have yet to be identified.
Because queen bees live about 40 times longer than worker bees, while laying 2,000 eggs a day, it has acquired a reputation for enhancing longevity and endurance.
Method of Action
Pollen of royal jelly is easily digested and assimilated by the human body. The constituents of thousands of ingested pollen grains reach the bloodstream within only 30 minutes, the pollen walls showing substantial alteration upon examination by electron microscopy. This most probably accounts for the method by which the nutrients of orally ingested pollen grains are released for utilization by the body.
Clinicians testing pollen's action in the blood stream as a nutritional source have demonstrated the passage of pollen particles directly from the stomach into the blood stream. This is called persorption. Two hours after experimental dogs were fed pollen in milk cream, the intact pollen was observed in the blood of the dogs, their urine and cerebrospinal fluids. A follow-up study showed when pure rye pollen was orally ingested by humans, at least 6,000 to 10,000 grains were persorbed into the blood stream. After various periods of time, pollen grains from the blood circulation were examined by electron microscope. The outer walls of the grains were increasingly altered with the passage of time.
Royal jelly is believed to act as an "adaptogen" in viral infections and has been popular with AIDS groups.
Royal jelly is rich in B vitamins, especially pantothenic acid.
About 15% is HDA (10-hyrdoxy-trans-(2)-decenoic acid.
Therapeutic Approaches
A review of published multi-language literature failed to locate any scientific studies on royal jelly, outside of anecdotal reports. Some case reports and "studies" reported in some eastern European countries are of interest but inadequate data make them difficult to evaluate.
The reader is advised to review the section on "Bee Pollen" for additional information on therapeutic applications of pollen, given the similarity of regular bee pollen to royal jelly pollen.
Toxicity Factors
An extensive multi-language literature search failed to uncover any reports of death attributable to the consumption of honeybee or royal jelly pollen.
Some people have allergic reactions to bee pollen. Although royal jelly has not been specifically implicated as an allergy-provoking pollen, the possibility is still open royal jelly is just as antigenic as regular bee pollen.
Since royal jelly pollen is a food and must be digested before it can be absorbed, any digestive insufficiencies increase the risk of inadequate breakdown of the pollen.
Foreign protein structures may then be released into the bloodstream, triggering an allergic response. People with such allergic responses have benefited from evaluation and treatment of their digestive function.
In general, it is best to first ingest small amounts of pollen. If minor reactions occur, such as scratchiness in the throat, a runny nose (rhinitis), etc., the quantity consumed may be reduced to less than 1/8 teaspoon in effort to avoid adverse reactions. If however, the reaction is persistent or acute, a physician should be contacted immediately.
Although very rare, severe allergic reactions to bee pollen have been reported in the literature. One study at the Mayo Clinic reports on three patients who developed severe allergic reactions to bee pollen after ingestion of a single tablespoon or less. It was eventually discovered the three were allergic to ragweed pollens, one of the most common airborne pollen in North America.
Substances toxic to bees and humans have been demonstrated in pollen on rare occasions. Although pollen from certain plants may be highly poisonous to bees, contamination of the stored honey by that pollen has only slight chance of harming the bees. The honey, however, may still be dangerous for human consumption. In India, honey contaminated with pollen from Lasiosiphon eriocephalus will cause severe nausea and vomiting if consumed by humans.
Toxic effects from pollen are known from the following plant species: Rhododendron, Andromeda, Corynocarpus, Scolypoda, Fagopyrum (after drying only), Polygonum bistorta, and Hyoscyamus.
References
Blum, MS et al., 10-hydroxy-decenoic acid, an antibiotic found in royal jelly. Nature, 1959, 130:452.
Chaubal, P.D. & G.B. Deodikar. Laisiosiphon poisoning in humans. Grana Palynol. 1963. 4; 395-397.
Christensen, G.M. Nature. 1962. 74; 103.
Cohen, et al. Acute allergic reaction after composite pollen ingestion. J Allergy Clin Immunol. 1979. 64(4); 270-274.
Dayan, AD: A note on royal jelly - a critical evaluation. J. Pharm. Pharmacol. 1960, 12:377.
Dixit, PK: Insulin-like activity in larval foods of the honeybee. Nature, 1964, 202:189.
Facts and Comparisons. The Lawrence Review of Natural Products. Mar, 1992.
Ishiwata-H et al: Determination and confirmation of methyl p-hydroxybenzoate in royal jelly and other foods produced by the honey bee. Food-Addit-Contam. 1995 Mar-Apr; 12(2): 281-5.
Jackson, J.L., P.D. Houghton & P. Snider. Bee pollen review of clinical studies and case reports. Int J Biosocial Res. 1983. 5(1); 47-52.
Jorde, W. & H.F. Linskens. German. Acta Allergol. 1974. 29; 165-170.
Kimura-Y et al: N-linked sugar chains of 350-kDa royal jelly glycoprotein. Biosci-Biotechnol-Biochem. 1995 Mar; 59(3): 507-9.
Linkens, H.F. & W. Jorde. German. Naturwissenschaffen. 1974. 61; 275.
Patel, N.G., M.H. Haydak & R. Lovell. Nature. 1961. 191; 362.
Shaginyan, V.S. Russian. Pchelovodstov. 1956. 33(11); 45-49.
Shen-X et al: [Effects of lyophilized royal jelly on experimental hyperlipidemia and thrombosis]. Chung-Hua-Yu-Fang-I-Hsueh-Tsa-Chih. 1995 Jan; 29(1): 27-9.
Stanley, R. & H. Linskens. Pollen Biology, Biochemistry and Management. Springer-verlag New York. 1974.
Townsend, GF et al., Activity of 10-hydroxydecenoic acid from royal jelly against experimental leukemia and ascitic tumors. Nature, 1959, 183:1,270.
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