Honey begins as a tiny droplet of nectar (having only a very small sugar
content) in a single flower. The offering of this sweet treat is nature’s way of
tricking the bee into visiting the flower as it carries the pollen grains of
previously visited flowers, thus pollinating the flower. A honey bee may visit
as many as 1500 flowers before her honey sac (completely separate from her
digestive stomach) is full.
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The antioxidant properties of honey help to protect and rejuvenate the skin and
aid to cleanse complexion. As one is exposed to lot of pollution, chemical
agents, the skin loses its ability to retain water and becomes dry and seems
wrinkled. The natural hydrating properties of honey trap and seal the moisture
in the skin leaving it soft and supple. Used in almost everything (suitable for
sensitive skin), beauticians recommend using honey quite liberally for glowing
complexion and shiny hair. All skin and hair care products such bubble baths,
shower products, face creams, moisturizers, body scrubs, skin lotions, hair
conditioners, etc., even baby products contain honey.
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Can’t spend the day at a beauty spa? You can still get a sweet treatment.
All-natural honey has been used as a beauty product since the days of Cleopatra
and it continues to be used today in manufactured and homemade products for skin
and hair care. Honey is a natural humectant, which means it has the ability to
attract and retain moisture.
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Bee venom is a complex composition of enzymes, proteins and amino acids. It is a
colourless clear liquid, with a sweet taste and a little bitter. It is soluble
in water, insoluble in alcohol and ammonium sulphate. If is comes in contact
with air, it forms, opaque or grayish-white crystals.
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The problem of chemical analysis of pollen becomes even more difficult because
plant pollen sources not only vary by locations throughout the world, but also
by season and year in a given locality. Protein is a major component of pollen
with an average value of almost 24%. Carbohydrates constitute about 27% of bee
collected pollen and consist mostly of the simple sugars fructose and glucose.
Some pollen also contains starch as high as 18% by weight. Pollen contains on
average only 5% fat.
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Royal jelly is a glandular secretion of young workers that is placed in queen
cells as a food for larval queens. It is called royal jelly because it is the
sole food of queen larvae. It appears that the composition of royal jelly
remains relatively constant over different colonies, bee strains and time. Some
variations can occur as a result of nutritional and age conditions of the
secreting worker bees, and care of collection/care of storage of the royal
jelly.
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Honey bee venom is a well-known pharmacologically active product of the hive. It
is synthesized by the venom glands of workers and queens, stored in the venom
reservoir and injected through the sting apparatus during the stinging process.
A mature defender or forager contains about 100 æg-150 æg of venom and a young
queen about 700 æg.
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Propolis is a sticky plant-derived material used by bees as their available
caulking, sealing, lining, strengthening, preserving and
probably repellent material inside the hive and around the entrance. It is
the material that sticks frames and other hive parts together. It is also found
in a layer as a thin ‘varnish’ over all the inner surfaces of the hive including
wax combs. Small cracks and holes in the nest cavity are often filled with
propolis, damaged combs are repaired with propolis and objects that cannot be
removed from the nest are frequently sealed with propolis.
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Beeswax has been historically used in candles, to sculpt figurines, beeswax
paintings (batiking) and in casting metal even before the Bronze age. Beeswax
figurines have survived from royal Egyptian tombs dating to 3400 BC In the
tropics of northern Australia aborigines have used beeswax 30,000 to 50,000
years ago to sculpt waxen figurines. Manufacture Beeswax is manufactured by
honey bees themselves. Originally believed to have been collected from flowers
or made from pollen, beeswax was discovered in 1744 to be synthesized by four
pairs of wax-secreting epidermal glands on the ventral side of worker abdomens.
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Royal jelly is a honey bee secretion that is used in the nutrition of the
larvae. It is secreted from the hypopharyngeal glands in the heads of young
workers and used (amongst other substances) to feed all of the larvae in the
colony, including those destined to become workers. If a queen is needed, the
hatchling will receive only royal jelly - and in large quantities - as its food
source for the first four days of its growth, and this rapid, early feeding
triggers the development of queen morphology, including the fully developed
ovaries needed to lay eggs. Some commercial royal jelly suppliers disseminate
misinformation such as "Only queen larvae and adult queens are fed royal jelly";
the fact remains that all larvae in a colony are fed royal jelly, and adult bees
do not consume it at all.
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