royal jelly

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 (among other substances) to feed the larvae in the colony.^[1] Additionally, if a queen is desired, a chosen larva will receive large quantities of royal jelly as its only food source for the first four days of its growth. This rapid, early feeding triggers the development of queen morphology, including the fully developed ovaries needed to lay eggs.

All larvae in a colony are fed royal jelly, but adult bees do not consume it at all.^[1]

Cultivation

Royal jelly is produced by stimulating colonies with movable frame hives to produce queen bees. Royal jelly is collected from each individual queen cell when the queen larvae are about four days old. It is collected from queen cells because these are the only cells in which large amounts are deposited; when royal jelly is fed to worker larvae, it is fed directly to them, and they consume it as it is produced, while the cells of queen larvae are "stocked" with royal jelly much faster than the larvae can consume it. Therefore, only in queen cells is the harvest of royal jelly practical.

A well-managed hive during a season of 5–6 months can produce approximately 500 g of royal jelly. Since the product is perishable, producers must have immediate access to proper cold storage (e.g., a household refrigerator or freezer) in which the royal jelly is stored until it is sold or conveyed to a collection centre. Sometimes honey or beeswax are added to the royal jelly, which is thought to aid its preservation.

Composition

Royal jelly is collected and sold as a dietary supplement, claiming various health benefits because of components like B-complex vitamins such as pantothenic acid (vitamin B₅) and vitamin B₆ (pyridoxine). The overall composition of royal jelly is 67% water, 12.5% crude protein (including small amounts of many different amino acids), and 11% simple sugars, also including a relatively high amount (5%) of fatty acids. It also contains many trace minerals, some enzymes, antibacterial and antibiotic components, and trace amounts of vitamin C.^[1] Vitamins A, D, E and K are completely absent from royal jelly.^[2]

Epigenetic effects

It has been shown that worker bees and the queen are exactly same genome-wise; the change into queen is caused entirely by epigenetics. The mechanism of action of the royal jelly is shown to be the silencing the methylation pathways of the DNA. In the study by Kucharski et al., a specific methyltransferase gene, Dmnt3 (DNA cytosine-5-methylatransferase-3), which adds new methyl tags to DNA strands, was silenced in newly emerged larvae. 72% of these larvae showed gene expression similar to the queen, with fully developed ovaries. It is not yet fully known which substance in the royal jelly causes this silencing.^[3]

Uses

Royal jelly has been reported as a possible immunomodulatory agent in Graves' disease.^[4] It has also been reported to stimulate the growth of glial cells^[5] and neural stem cells in the brain,^[6]. To date, there is preliminary evidence that it may have some cholesterol-lowering, anti-inflammatory, wound-healing, and antibiotic effects, though the last three of these effects are unlikely to be realized if ingested (due to the destruction of the substances involved through digestion, or neutralization via changes in pH).^[7] There are also some preliminary experiments (on cells and lab animals) in which royal jelly may have some benefit regarding certain other diseases, though there is no solid evidence for those claims, and further experimentation and validation would be needed to prove any useful benefit.

Royal jelly can also be found in some beauty products.

Royal jelly may cause allergic reactions in humans ranging from hives, asthma, to even fatal anaphylaxis.^{[8][9][10][11][12][13]} The incidence of allergic side effect in people that consume royal jelly is unknown, however it has been suggested that the risk of having an allergy to royal jelly is higher in people who already have known allergies.^[14]

In fiction

• "Royal Jelly" is the title of a short story by Roald Dahl detailing the imaginative side-effects of feeding royal jelly to an infant.^[15]
• Leela's insistence on collecting royal jelly and taking a baby queen bee triggers the main events of the Futurama episode The Sting.
• In Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story, Dewey (John C. Reilly) sings a song entitled, "Royal Jelly".

See also

• Bee pollen

Sources

• Balch, Phyllis A.; Balch, James F. (2000). Prescription for Nutritional Healing, Third Edition. New York: Avery. ISBN 1-58333-077-1. 
• Ammon, R. and Zoch, E. (1957) Zur Biochemie des Futtersaftes der Bienenkoenigin. Arzneimittel Forschung 7: 699-702
• Blum, M.S., Novak A.F. and Taber III, 5. (1959). 10-Hydroxy-decenoic acid, an antibiotic found in royal jelly. Science (journal), 130 : 452-453
• Bonomi, A. (1983) Acquisizioni in tema di composizione chimica e di attivita' biologica della pappa reale. Apitalia, 10 (15): 7-13.
• Braines, L.N. (1959). Royal jelly I. Inform. Bull. Inst. Pchelovodstva, 31 pp (with various articles)
• Braines, L.N. (1960). Royal jelly II. Inform. Bull. Inst. Pchelovodstva, 40 pp.
• Braines, L.N. (1962). Royal jelly III. Inform. Bull. Inst. Pchelovodstva, 40
• Chauvin, R. and Louveaux, 1. (1956) Etdue macroscopique et microscopique de lagelee royale. L'apiculteur.
• Cho, Y.T. (1977). Studies on royal jelly and abnormal cholesterol and triglycerides. Amer. Bee 1., 117 : 36-38
• De Belfever, B. (1958) La gelee royale des abeilles. Maloine, Paris.
• Destrem, H. (1956) Experimentation de la gelee royale d'abeille en pratique geriatrique (134 cas). Rev. Franc. Geront, 3.
• Giordani, G. (1961). [Effect of royal jelly on chickens.] Avicoltura 30 (6): 114-120
• Hattori N, Nomoto H, Fukumitsu H, Mishima S, Furukawa S. [Royal jelly and its unique fatty acid, 10-hydroxy-trans-2-decenoic acid, promote neurogenesis by neural stem/progenitor cells in vitro.] Biomed Res. 2007 Oct;28(5):261-6.
• Hashimoto M, Kanda M, Ikeno K, Hayashi Y, Nakamura T, Ogawa Y, Fukumitsu H, Nomoto H, Furukawa S. (2005) Oral administration of royal jelly facilitates mRNA expression of glial cell line-derived neurotrophic factor and neurofilament H in the hippocampus of the adult mouse brain. Biosci Biotechnol Biochem. 2005 Apr;69(4):800-5.
• Inoue, T. (1986). The use and utilization of royal jelly and the evaluation of the medical efficacy of royal jelly in Japan. Proceeding sof the XXXth International Congress of Apiculture, Nagoya, 1985, Apimondia, 444-447
• Jean, E. (1956). A process of royal jelly absorption for its incorporation into assimilable substances. Fr. Pat., 1,118,123
• Jacoli, G. (1956) Ricerche sperimentali su alcune proprieta' biologiche della gelatina reale. Apicoltore d'Italia, 23 (9-10): 211-214.
• Karaali, A., Meydanoglu, F. and Eke, D. (1988) Studies on composition, freeze drying and storage of Turkish royal jelly. J. Apic. Res., 27 (3): 182-185.
• Lercker, G., Capella, P., Conte, L.S., Ruini, F. and Giordani, G. (1982) Components of royal jelly: II. The lipid fraction, hydrocarbons and sterolds. J. Apic. Res. 21(3):178-184.
• Lercker, G., Vecchi, M.A., Sabatini, A.G. and Nanetti, A. 1984. Controllo chimicoanalitico della gelatina reale. Riv. Merceol. 23 (1): 83-94.
• Lercker, G., Savioli, S., Vecchi, M.A., Sabatini, A.G., Nanetti, A. and Piana, L. (1986) Carbohydrate Determination of Royal Jelly by High Resolution Gas Chromatography (HRGC). Food Chemistry, 19: 255-264.
• Lercker, G., Caboni, M.F., Vecchi, M.A., Sabatini, A.G. and Nanetti, A. (1992) Caratterizzazione dei principali costituenti della gelatina reale. Apicoltura 8:11-21.
• Nakamura, T. (1986) Quality standards of royal jelly for medical use. proceedings of the XXXth International Congress of Apiculture, Nagoya, 1985 Apimondia (1986) 462-464.
• Rembold, H. (1965) Biological active sustance in royal jelly. Vitamins and hormones 23:359-382.
• Salama, A., Mogawer, H.H. and El-Tohamy, M. 1977 Royal jelly a revelation or a fable. Egyptian Journal of Veterinary Science 14 (2): 95-102.
• Takenaka, T. Nitrogen components and carboxylic acids of royal jelly. In Chemistry and biology of social insects (edited by Eder, J., Rembold, H.). Munich, German Federal Republic, Verlag J. Papemy (1987): 162-163.
• Wagner, H., Dobler, I., Thiem, I. Effect of royal jelly on the peirpheral blood and survival rate of mice after irradiation of the entire body with X-rays. Radiobiologia Radiotherapia (1970) 11(3): 323-328.

References