BEE-KEEPING PRODUCTS
BEE-KEEPING PRODUCTS. Since ancient times, humans have used B.-k.p.: royal jelly, honey, beebread, dead bees, bee glue, bee wax, bee poison, pollen, etc, which feature antimicrobial and therapeutic effects.
Royal jelly, secretion of maxillary and pharyngeal glands of nurse bees. Bees place 0.2—0.5 g of royal jelly in one queen cell. Its chemical composition depends on the pollen that bees eat. The dry matter contains 10—58% of protein, 5—18% of fat, 5—15% of carbohydrates, minerals, vitamins, and other biologically active substances. It serves as feed for larval bees of any type in a bee family during the first 3 days, is the sole specific feed for the adult queen and larval queens. R.j. feeding determines the morphological differences between worker bees and the queen and her reproductive rate. An adult queen weights twice the worker bee’s weight and lays up to 2.5—3.0 thous. eggs a day. It is used in medicine (to make Apilac, Vitadon, etc), in perfume and beauty industry. In the RB, R.j. is harvested from the 2nd half of May to the end of June (when the main honey harvesting begins); within a season, about 100 g is harvested from one family.
Beebread, pollen pellet collected by bees from plant flowers, laid and packed into comb and covered with honey. It contains amino acids, enzymes, microelements, carbohydrates, hormones, monosaccharides, fatty acids, and vitamins.
Dead bees, bodies of dead bees. Depending on the season, a distinction is made between dead winter bees and dead spring-summer bees. In summer, bees live 1.5 months approx., in winter — not longer than 9 months. Provided the best care for the hive, not less than 400—500g of dead bees is obtained in winter. They contain amino acids, various enzymes, micro- and macro-elements, hormonecontaining substances (apitoxin, heparin, melanin), etc.
Bee wax, 1) a lipoid secreted by wax glands of worker bees and used by them to build a comb, to seal cells with honey. Its colour is white to brown, consists of compound esters (up to 75%), saturated hydrocarbons (12—12.5%), and free carboxylic acids. Within a season 0.5—1.5 kg of wax is obtained from one bee family; 2) the product produced by remelting of raw wax material (used combs, wax bloom in hives, etc). Bee wax is used mostly to make honeycomb base and in over 40 industries (aviation, radio engineering, etc).
Propolis (bee glue), a sticky resinous matter generated by honey bees. Bees collect resinous substances from plants, add salivary gland secretion, and wax therein. Chemical composition: plant resins (50—55%), ester oils (8—10%), wax (ab. 30%), etc. Propolis is used by bees to seal gaps in the hive, reduce entrance size, etc. Each hive yields 50—150 g of wax within a season.
Bee poison (apitoxin), secretion of glands of the sting apparatus of a worker bee and a queen. Thick creamy colorless liquid with a characteristic odour and high acid value. Contains a biologically active protein (melittin), enzymes (hyaluronidase, phospholipase A2), free amino acids, etc. Effective ingredients of bee poison include histamine glycoside, lipids and substances similar to saponin of animal origin. It solidifies fast in air. Easily dissolves in water, less easily — in formic acid and 60% alcohol. Thermally stable (freezing and heating to 115°С does not change its properties). Stinging bee excretes 0.2—0.3 mg of poison; the lethal dose is case-dependent, for a healthy human it is 500—1000 stings (approx. 200 mg). Preparations from B.p. (Ungapiven, Virapin, etc) are used in medicine as water solutions, ointments, during the procedures of electrophoresis for treatment of joint diseases, myositis, radiculitis, etc. B.p. is counterindicative at individual intolerance, and in cases of infectious diseases of the liver, kidneys, etc.
