History of Royal Jelly

The evolution of the honeybee (Apis mellifera) closely follows the appearance of flowering plants during the Cretaceous period, which began 146 million years ago, at the end of the Jurassic period. The unique social behavior of honeybees is determined by "yellow protein," a key substance among the "major royal jelly proteins" (MRJP) that the nurse bees feed to larvae as they develop. Yellow protein has a known origin as a cuticle pigment in Drosophila melanogaster, the common fruit fly.

Social Behavior

Larvae destined to be worker bees are fed royal jelly during the first three days of life. After that, they are nourished with a recipe of honey and pollen. Larvae destined to be breeding queens are nourished with royal jelly throughout their development. Honey is 1 percent protein, but royal jelly is 14 percent. Some royal jelly proteins are expressed within the "Kenyon cells" of the brain's "mushroom body" (mushroom-shaped body) and are involved in learning, memory and social behavior. Honeybees each have 350,000 to 400,000 Kenyon cells, whereas Drosophila have 5,000.

Milk and Eggs

Like egg whites and human milk, royal jelly has saccharides (sugars) and glycans (glycerin) that protect newborns from bacterial infections by mimicking receptor sites where bacteria attach to cells. Recently, as resistant bacteria have emerged, royal jelly has been intensely studied as an antibiotic. Honey has antibacterial properties, but they are not like royal jelly's. The high density of honey creates an osmosis pressure that defeats bacteria by drying them. Sugars in honey, especially dark honey, oxidize to produce antibacterial hydrogen peroxide.

1950s France

In the 1950s, when the price of honey was depressed worldwide, French beekeepers brought royal jelly onto the market. Based on the exceptional fertility and comparative long life of queen bees, trade periodicals suggested humans could enjoy similar benefits by consuming royal jelly. Miracle treatments were reported, but the French bee scientist Remy Chauvin could not discover their sources. Sensationalist claims for royal jelly products, together with the inability to discover what amount, if any, of royal jelly was in the products, created a bad reputation for royal jelly within the scientific community.

Traditional Chinese Medicine

Traditional Chinese medicine recommends royal jelly for health problems as varied as kidney and liver diseases, anxiety, depression, asthma and hair loss. Royal jelly is recommended to increase sexual desire, although the fraction of testosterone in each gram of royal jelly equals as little as one millionth of the amount men produce daily. In 2010, R. Leung of the University of Hong Kong found that 2 percent of royal jelly consumers surveyed responded that they experienced eczema, rhinitis, urticaria (hives) or acute asthma after oral consumption. The statistic increased to 7 percent for respondents already attending asthma clinics.

Cosmetics

Outside of Asia, the largest consumption of royal jelly is in cosmetic products. Beginning in 1954, royal jelly was added to face cream stabilized in a paste of lactose (milk sugar). Currently, fresh or freeze-dried royal jelly is stabilized with lactose or glycerin and used in creams for dry or aging skin.