Propolis ‘One of Nature's Great Protectors’

Sunday Supplement
The Scotsman (Scotland), 10/14/2006

One of nature's great protectors, propolis is a natural antibiotic, an anti-inflammatory and analgesic. Used by the Soviet Union to treat battle wounds and fever during the Second World War, it is the brown, sticky substance that bees use to build ramparts to defend their hive's entrance. It also forms an antiseptic barrier from bacterial or viral attack. The entire inside of the hive is coated with propolis, creating one of nature's most sterile environments.

Just as it creates a hive's auto-immune system, propolis is similarly believed to strengthen the human immune system by encouraging the thymus gland to produce extra white blood cells. Known as nature's penicillin, propolis is a natural antibiotic without side-effects, and it has also been known to fight bacterial strains that have become resistant to synthetic antibiotics…

• Gill Hames is at Neal's Yard Remedies, 102 Hanover Street, Edinburgh (0131 226 3223, www.nealsyardremedies.com)