Article Outlines Medicinal Use of Bee Products

Cells of Urban Sweetness

By Cyan James, Metro Times (USA), 9/12/2007

…Advocates claim that the pollen bees harvest provides energy, rejuvenates cells and boosts immunity. "It’s more valuable than gold," Wieske says. We’re at another site in the city, where he encourages me to sample pollen, in the form of soft, grayish-yellow balls, like Dipping Dots candy. Hesitantly, I smash a few of the balls and eat them. They’re sweet and doughy.

Bees also use propolis, a resin they gather and manufacture from tree bark and buds. Scientists investigating propolis, as reported by the BBC and rakemag.com, get favorable results in tests pitting propolis against AIDS and cancer. The substance won’t be cleared by the FDA or be mass-produced anytime soon, but fans gather it from hives by hand, or purchase it at farmers’ markets, and swear by its curative and preventive properties. I chew a clump of it myself. It’s like tasteless, long-lasting gum, and after chewing it for half an hour my mouth feels slightly numb.

Some bee fanciers practice apitherapy, deliberately allowing bees to sting them in an effort to ameliorate inflammatory diseases such as arthritis. And royal jelly, a clear, glutinous paste fed to growing larvae, is harvested and used in nutritional supplements and skin creams….