Royal jelly is a creamy, white to pale yellow substance that has a gelatinous appearance and a sweet although slightly bitter taste. It is used to feed all the larvae in the first days of their development and constitutes the exclusive food of the queens, hence its name. You should know that royal jelly is an exceptional food, which allows the queen to evolve differently and develop a perfectly functional female reproductive system. Thanks to the latter, she will be able to live 4-5 years and lay 2,000 eggs... per day! Conversely, worker bees and males (drones) no longer receive any after their fourth day of life, and they are fed only with pollen or honey, so their growth and lifespan are much smaller (a worker only lives 4-5 weeks in summer). In addition, thanks to royal jelly, the queen has greater resistance to disease and greater robustness. Thus, as the sustainability of the hive depends on the queen, whose survival is linked to royal jelly, it clearly appears that this product is an essential with multiple properties, which will delight both bees and humans!
This article was updated on 30/11/2022What is royal jelly used for?
Main properties
Stimulating properties:
Due to its rich composition, royal jelly produces energy and stimulates metabolism. It makes it possible, for example, to promote weight gain in infants, to better recover in the event of convalescence linked to overwork, to improve the performance of athletes, or even to limit sexual deficiencies in both men and women. wife. An excellent intellectual stimulant, royal jelly increases mental mood and memory by improving neuronal metabolism. In addition, thanks to its nervous components, it helps fight stress and limit emotionality or irritability. Thus, a royal jelly cure is revitalizing and stimulating, and it is an excellent remedy to preserve the nervous system and guarantee its effectiveness.
Anti-infectious properties:
Like other hive products, royal jelly increases the immune system in order to better resist infections in winter or in cases of fatigue. As effective as certain antibiotics against viruses and certain bacteria, royal jelly is the ideal ally for preventing or treating this type of infection.
Pain-relieving properties:
Thanks to phenylalanine, royal jelly stimulates the secretion of endorphins, which are our pain-relieving molecules.
Antioxidant properties:
Thanks to its richness in vitamin B5, a precursor of coenzyme A, a molecule essential for metabolism, royal jelly has antioxidant and anti-aging properties. In addition, with other components, they together fight against free radicals that damage cells and accelerate aging.
Digestive properties:
Royal jelly is eupeptic and stomachic, meaning that it will stimulate the stomach and promote digestion. It is also beneficial for the intestine, and helps fight gastric or duodenal ulcers and colitis.
Cardiovascular properties:
The vitamins B9 and B12 it contains contribute to increasing the hemoglobin level in the blood and to the activity of the heart muscle.
Anti-cancer properties:
Like propolis, royal jelly has favorable properties for treating cancer, demonstrated in animals and currently being studied in humans. However, be vigilant in the event of hormone-dependent cancer.
Uses
Royal jelly is a product with multiple virtues, which strengthens the immune defenses, delay the aging cellular, promotes physical and mental well-being, And much more !
Royal jelly should be consumed in order to reduce fatigue and stimulate your immune defenses. It will be useful to prevent infections, tone your body and balance your nervous system. It is classically used in treatment of 4 to 6 weeks, either pure or mixed with honey, or freeze-dried in capsule, capsule or tablet, or in an ampoule. The ideal intake corresponds to a dose of 0,5 à 0,6 g per day to be taken on an empty stomach, 15 minutes before breakfast, and up to 1 g per dose in case of overwork or convalescence. For children, doses should be halved or more, depending on age and weight.
The royal jelly cure is ideal for changing seasons, at all stages of life, and can be used more particularly for:
- Fatigue physical, psychological, sexual, convalescence, state of overwork…
- Anxiety, stress, “unhappiness”
- Disorders of memory
- Loss of appetite with weight loss
- State of fragility linked to insufficient intake of essential elements (poor quality diet, illness, etc.)
Precautions for use
Royal jelly is contraindicated in people allergic to honey, bee venom, or any other hive product. Also be careful in people with asthma, in cases of eczema or hormone-dependent pathology.
Pure royal jelly in a jar is available store in the refrigerator between +2 and +5°C.
What is royal jelly made of?
After harvest, royal jelly is stored in pots between 2 and 5°C, and kept away from light, before being packaged. It should then be kept in the refrigerator. In addition, a hive provides on average only 150 to 300 g of royal jelly per year! It is therefore an extremely valuable product, which explains its final cost, which may seem a little high.
You should know that the composition of royal jelly varies slightly depending on the breed of the bee and its natural diet. (pollen and nectar), but on average, there are:
- 62 à 68,5 % d’water
- 7 to 18% of carbohydrates, with mainly glucose (2 to 9%) and fructose (2 to 9%)
- 11 to 18% of proteins, including many essential amino acids
- 2 à 8 % of lipids
- 1.4% minimum10-hydroxy-2-decenoic acid (10-HDA)
- 1 % d’miscellaneous assets
And it is in this last, very minor part that all the power of royal jelly lies! Indeed, these latter constituents are active at very low concentrations, and the quantities present in royal jelly are sufficient for significant action: royal jelly provides vitamin B5 (it is the natural product which is richest), vitamins B1, B2, B3, B7, B8, B9 and B12, and also minerals and trace elements (calcium, phosphorus, potassium, magnesium, iron, copper and silicon). All these elements being essential to the metabolism and immune defenses of our body, we clearly realize here how “royal” this jelly is. Furthermore, the10-HDA acid, the minimum content of which is regulated, is particularly interesting, and studies attribute to it an immunostimulating effect. But its properties don't stop there! Indeed, it contains acetylcholine, a major neurotransmitter for the balance of the nervous system, as well as substances similar to steroid hormones, which can play a role in certain diseases. Finally, note that among the 15% of proteins, royal jelly contains all essential amino acids (eight in number) which allow us to synthesize the others and are therefore essential to our good development!
How is royal jelly made?
Royal jelly is secreted between the fifth and fourteenth day of their existence by the pharyngeal and mandibular glands of the young. nurse bees. Even if it is naturally present in the hive, it is in insufficient quantity and in a form unsuitable for exploitation. In addition, the quantity present is that required for its use within the hive, as food for the young larvae and the queen, and it is therefore impossible to take it in this way by depriving the colony. Also, beekeepers have developed specific techniques to produce royal jelly responsibly, without compromising the survival of the bees.
The beekeeper is very important here: first of all, he will have selected certain breeds of bees known to produce more royal jelly. In addition, the beekeeper artificially causes a queen rearing : to do this, the technique may seem barbaric, but beekeepers think above all about the good health of their hives and they do this with respect for the bees. First, the beekeeper removes the queen from the hive. Thus, the orphan colony of bees, made up of numerous workers and nurses, finds itself destitute... But bees are very intelligent insects, whose survival instinct is engraved in the hive! These “social” insects do not really exist as individuals, because it is the entire colony that forms the individual. So much so that, very quickly after this tragic event, the bees reacted and the nurseries raised new royal larvae in specialized cells. But this time, the beekeeper is as cunning as the fox, and he will place lures in the queen cells, replacing the larvae. He then inserts into the hive a supporting frame of around fifty plastic cups in which young larvae are deposited, thus creating a breeding of queens. This stratagem then deceives the nurses, who continue to fill these cells with royal jelly which the beekeeper is happy to recover 3 days later (having taken care to delicately remove the queen larva). This technique requires extreme delicacy on the part of the passionate producer, and is called grafting. Indeed, given the small size of the larvae (1/4 mm) and therefore the small size of the plastic cups used as lures, you must be very careful when harvesting, which is done by suction.
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Bibliography
Work : Cherbuliez, T., Domerego, R. (2003). Apitherapy - Bee medicine. Amyris Editions.
Work : April, G. (2014). Natural health with apitherapy: Honey, propolis, pollen, royal jelly... Éditions Terre vivant.
Work : Domerego, R., Imbert, G., & Blanchard, C. (2016). Practical guide to bee medicine: honey, pollen, propolis, royal jelly... on a daily basis. Baroch Editions.