Purified Bee Venom is Anti-Inflammatory, Presents Less Allergic Reactions

Safety of essential bee venom pharmacopuncture as assessed in a randomized controlled double-blind trial

J Ethnopharmacol. 2016 Nov 10. pii: S0378-8741(16)31691-9

ETHNOPHARMACOLOGICAL RELEVANCE:

While bee venom (BV) pharmacopuncture use is common in Asia, frequent occurrence of allergic reactions during the treatment process is burdensome for both practitioner and patient.

AIM OF THE STUDY:

This study compared efficacy and safety in isolated and purified essential BV (eBV) pharmacopuncture filtered for phospholipase A2 (PLA2) and histamine sections, and original BV to the aim of promoting safe BV pharmacopuncture use.

MATERIALS AND METHODS:

In in vitro, we examined the effect of BV and eBV on nitric oxide (NO) production induced by lipopolysaccharide (LPS) in RAW 264.7 macrophages, and clinically, 20 healthy adults aged 20-40 years were randomly allocated and administered eBV 0.2mL and BV pharmacopuncture 0.2mL on left and right forearm, respectively, and physician, participant, and outcome assessor were blinded to treatment allocation. Local pain, swelling, itching, redness, wheals, and adverse reactions were recorded by timepoint.

CONCLUSIONS:

eBV and BV displayed comparable anti-inflammatory effects, and eBV pharmacopuncture presented less local allergic reactions.