Bee Propolis Blog

Bee Propolis F.A.Q

2020-12-01T07:49:00.000-08:00

What is bee propolis?

Bee propolis or also referred as bee glue is a beehive product, similar to honey and royal jelly. Basically, it is a mixture of different resins that bees gather from various vegetations around them. Usually, the resin comes from tree buds, or sap flows. During the gathering process, they blend it together with their saliva or are at least, they partially metabolize.

Bees themselves use it to seal their hive and protect their colonies from harmful disease such as American Foulbrood.

Considering the health benefits, people use bee propolis as health supplements; furthermore, some of them use it as alternative medicine against heavy diseases such as cancer, chronic diabetes, etc.

It needs to be remembered that each specific type has different vegetation source. For example, European bee propolis uses poplar (Poppulus sp.) as it main resources, while Brazilian bee propolis uses Baccharis sp. as it vegetation resources. Bees use specific vegetations around them as the source. So the place where bee colonies live is an important factor.

What are bee propolis benefits for me?

Many researches and clinical studies found that it has numerous biological activities:

1. Natural antibiotic (antibacterial, antifungal, and antiviral)

2. Anticancer and tumor-shrinking properties

3. Anti-inflammatory effect

4. Rich in antioxidant (due to its flavonoid compounds)

5. Hepatoprotective (liver protection).

The combination of those properties can produce positive result for our health. This is also the reason of why bee propolis can work effectively on many health problem such as fungus infection (i.e. candida infection), herpes, influenza, wound healing, hypertension, atherosclerosis, diabetes, infertility, skin problem (e.g. warts, acne, boil,etc.), oral health problem (e.g. gingivitis, periodontitis, receding gums etc.) and many more.

For more information about the main health benefits of bee propolis, you can read this article

Is it really effective for any specific disease?

The effectiveness rate is very difficult to be determined, especially when we discuss it in general type. Due to chemical variability of bee propolis, the significance level of its health-related properties can be different from type to type.

For example, study found that the most significant cytotoxic activity against cancer belongs to bee propolis from Netherland and China, while sample from Peru shows a weaker cytotoxic activity.

For more information about chemical variability issues and its health benefits, you can read here or here

Is there any uses aside from health and medicinal concern?

In Africa, it is used for creating a waterproof layers for containers. It is also used as glue, wood preservatives/varnished especially for musical instruments (such as violins or guitar), preparing bow string and for tuning drums. In some car-polishing products, it is used as a catalyst to convert fats and oils into a car wax polishing products.

Is it safe to be consumed? How much safe is it?

Yes, it’s a very safe supplement unless you have allergy to it. The upper limit of it dose referring to LD50 is 7.34 gram/kg body mass. If you want to convert the raw number, it is equal to consume 513.8 gram of bee propolis at one time for a person who weighted 70kg. For more information about the toxicity concern, you can read here

What about propolis allergy?

People who suffer to propolis allergy are also equally allergy to bee sting and also other bee products. Based on the given statistic, the amount is approximated to be 0.001% – 0.002% of total population. That means 1 – 2 people out of 1,000 are suffered to this allergy.

To assess whether you have this kind of allergy or not, you can ask to your dermatologist for a patch testing. If you have this allergy, you will have a flare on your tested skin.

What are the allergy symptoms?

The most common symptom is dermatitis or skin inflammation. However, in some other cases, the symptoms can be:

Oral inflammation/ulceration
Mouth oedema (swelling),
Stomatitis,
Nausea and stomach upsets.

What is the exact dosage for me?

The best way is following the written suggested dosage on your products. This is because bee propolis has wide chemical variability; hence, there is no international standardization yet. And if there is no international accepted standard, there is no such a thing as exact dosage. Usually, each manufacturer has their standardization. And based on that, they can determine the optimal dosage for you.

Is there any other side effect aside from allergy?

Personally, I’d say there is no side effect. However, there are two reported cases of acute renal failure as a result of bee propolis consumption. Some studies also assess the possibility of side effect. It is suggested that in excessive consumption, it might cause damage to our cells (genotoxic and cytotoxic). For more information about possible side effect, you can read this article

NB: I’m really trying my best to build this blog so that you can find factual and trustworthy information about this specific topic. If you have any suggestion or critic, just go put some comments. I really hope that you can obtain something useful here…. Happy reading! :)

Antiviral Properties Of Bee Propolis

2013-01-06T23:45:00.000-08:00

If you read my previous post titled Top 5 Bee Propolis Benefits, you won’t explicitly find antiviral effects from that list. Why? Well actually, it’s not because the antiviral effect doesn’t exist in bee propolis, in fact, it exists in most samples.

The problem relies in the word ‘most’, which means, we can’t guarantee that every bee propolis type possess antiviral activity (especially for the less popular variants such as Canarian type). But you don’t have to be worried because most of products that you can find on your nearest store are most likely to be Brazilian and European types. In addition, both of those types have been proven to show significant antiviral activity.

Antimicrobial activity of bee propolis (including its antiviral activity) is highly attributed to the phenolic compounds such as flavonoids^[1]. Based on Schnitzler^[2] study, the specific substances that gives significant contribution to its antiviral activities are galangin and chrysin. Both of them are specific forms of flavonoids.

How Does it Works?

Just like any other antiviral drugs, some specific compounds which are contained in bee propolis possess complex capabilities to disrupt and manipulate virus’ life cycle. Here is the quick and simple explanation to antiviral mechanism of bee propolis which has already been verified and identified by various studies:

Preventing virus from entering the host cell^[4,5].
Reducing intracellular replication activities^[4,5,6,7]. This process contributes to suppress the growth and development of virus. This can be done by the process called reverse transcriptase. This process stops some specific enzymes disabling virus capability to synthesize their RNA or DNA.
Stimulating our immune system to fight back against virus infection^[6].

Aside from these findings, it also needs to be remembered that the effectiveness is directly depending on its concentration level. Based on Gekker’s in-vitro study, it is found that 85% – 98% effectiveness level can be achieved by using 66.6 µ/ml concentration of bee propolis. effectiveness.

Reference:

Viuda-Martos M, Ruiz-Navajas Y, Fernández-López J, Pérez-Alvarez JA. Functional properties of honey, bee glue, and royal jelly.J Food Sci. 2008 Nov;73(9):R117-24.
Schnitzler P, Neuner A, Nolkemper S, Zundel C, Nowack H, Sensch KH, Reichling J.Antiviral activity and mode of action from extracst and selected compounds.Phytother Res. 2010 Apr;24(4):632.
Hegazi Ahmed G.; Farghal,Abd El HadyFaten K. National Research Center and Animal Health Research Institute, Dokki, Giza, Egypt. 2000
Búfalo MC, Figueiredo AS, de Sousa JP, Candeias JM, Bastos JK, Sforcin JM.J Appl Microbiol. 2009 Nov;107(5):1669-80. Epub 2009 Apr 21.
Gekker G, Hu S, Spivak M, Lokensgard JR, Peterson PK. 2005 Nov 14;102(2):158-63. Epub 2005 Jul 19.
Amoros M, et al, Journal of natural products (1994) 57(5):644 7
Harish Z, Rubinstein A, Suppression of HIV-1 replication by bee propolis and its immunoregulatory

How Bee Propolis Might Help Your Diabetes

2012-12-30T07:45:00.000-08:00

Among many bee propolis benefits, there is anti hyperglycemia properties. Studies show that bee propolis can stabilize glucose/blood sugar level within our body, thus, enabling it as a possible treatments for diabetes. But before discussing the possibility of bee propolis for diabetes treatment, it is better to understand about diabetes and lethal problems which related to it.

Quick Explanation to Diabetes

Diabetes can be described as problem associated with metabolism – Metabolism itself is the manner of how our body system works with consumed foods to produce energy. All of digested foods will be converted into blood sugar or glucose. Glucose itself works as the human body's energy supply.

Right after digestive process happen, glucose goes into our circulatory system. And then it transported to each cells in where it will be utilized for producing the required energy. But, a hormone known as insulin has to be exists so that glucose can enter our cells.

Normal people will have their insulin produced in the right exact amount, thus, enabling glucose transportation from bloodstream into cells appropriately. However, people who suffer to diabetes will have these following cases:

Their body does not produce enough insulin.
Their body's cells (such as muscle cells, liver cells) and fats are not able to utilize insulin in a proper manner.

As the result, there are excessive amount of glucose in the body circulatory system, but cells can’t use them to produce energy.

What Makes It Lethal?

In the long run, massive quantities of glucose will harm nerve system as well as circulatory system. This key fact shows how coronary disease and stroke has been a leading factors that cause the most death in diabetes sufferers. In addition, it may definitely produces some other ailments, for example blindness, eye diseases, renal failure, digestion complications, and also oral health problems. Regarding the danger of diabetes, here are statistic which is issued by the US government:

Antifungal Properties Of Bee Propolis

2012-12-21T08:45:00.000-08:00

In this article, I’d like to give some facts about the antifungal properties of European poplar-based propolis and Brazilian bee propolis. So, here we go:

European poplar-based propolis (in 10% extracts ethanol) has an effective fungistatic effect against 17 fungal pathogens^[1]. It also has been demonstrated to work effectively in suppressing the growth of yeasts and fungus which responsible for ringworm and athlete's foot disease^[2].

Aside from European type, another study also assess this therapeutic effects on Brazillian bee propolis. As a record, these antifungal properties were tested on patients who suffer for onychomycosis (fungal infection of toenails or fingernails), so basically, we can consider it to be more practical compared to European type. The result shows that the Brazilian bee propolis gives desirable results against 67 yeasts which have been isolated from onychomycosis patients^[3].

This antifungal effect comes to an existence due to specific compounds which we can find on bee propolis; they are flavonoids (pinocembrin, sakuranetin, and pinobanksin) and caffeic acid derivatives (benzyl ester, and pterostilbene)^[4].

Read more »

Buying Tips For Quality Bee Propolis Product

2012-12-15T09:51:00.000-08:00

A lot of health care products in the market today contain bee propolis, the resin-like substance that honey bees collect from plants and trees. It is undoubtedly known to have antibacterial, anti-inflammatory, anti-cancer and regenerative effects.

Nutritional supplements, lozenges, mouthwash, soaps, creams and lip balms are only some of the products that demonstrate its health benefits. Many consider it as a wonder of nature. Since then, the demand for bee propolis products has skyrocketed.

But how does one select the quality products? Here are some tips on buying bee propolis products that you can consider and apply:

Knowing Your Bee Propolis Source

First of all, find out where the source comes from. Remember that you will have different significant level of health benefits as a result of its chemical diversity. That factor is determined by the location, topography and climate of the place where bee colonies live. This was evident in a study by Banksota, on the scavenging, hepatoprotective and cytotoxic characteristics of propolis. When bee propolis from Peru, The Netherlands, China and Brazil were compared, it was discovered that the samples from China and The Netherlands have the most potent cytotoxic activity[1]. In a separate study, Brazilian Green Propolis was found to contain 6% to 8% of the PAK1-blocking agent, Artepillin C (ARC)[2], which means, it has a significant antioxidant properties.

Antibacterial Mechanism of Propolis

2012-12-08T08:06:00.000-08:00

The antibacterial properties of bee propolis have been proven in hundreds of in-vitro experiments. Regardless of its chemical diversity and its various origins, researchers can find this effect in any samples, thus, makes it deserve the spot in my Top 5 Bee Propolis Benefits.

Various studies report that this antibacterial mechanism is not as simple as they thought before. This phenomenon has been confirmed by many researchers who worked on the same topic, such as Scheller^[1] and Krol^[2].

When they examined it deeper, this antibacterial effect comes to existence due to harmonic works between various flavonoids compounds, aromatic acids and esters^[3][4][5], such galangin, pinocembrin and pinostrobin^[4].

Bee Propolis and Its Wound Healing Capability

2012-11-24T18:44:00.000-08:00

Just watched a youtube video titled: Propolis - Snake Oil, or Another of Nature's Miracles

I really think this propolis tincture has made a significant impact

on my spider bite.

Based on the video, we can see a testimonial which stating that bee propolis is able to work effectively to quicken wound healing process. So, I decided to dig something from some journals to get scientific explanation about this. But first of all, we need a better understanding about wound healing process itself.

Wound Healing Process

The wound healing process is a dynamic and complex process which can be divided into three phases. It is critical to remember that wound healing is not linear and often wounds can progress both forwards and back through the phases depending upon intrinsic and extrinsic forces at work within the patient.

Top 5 Health Benefits Of Propolis

2012-11-06T03:58:00.000-08:00

Historical records show us that bee propolis can give us a complete package of health benefit. Since the age of ancient Egypt until this present time, it has been widely used for various medicinal purposes.

This fact makes bee propolis as a very interesting research subject – especially in this 21st century, where evidence-based for herbal supplements have became a necessity. During this last 4 decades, there are hundreds clinical studies and researches that bring bee propolis as the main subject. One of the hot topics was discussing about the correlation between the benefits and its chemical substances. At the first, experts wanted to know what particular compounds that gives a certain therapeutic effects.

However, as more and more researches are performed, it was found that different bee propolis sample (from a different geographic location) contains different active chemical substances. This finding was hypothetically affecting propolis biological activities.

Is that a problem for us?

Talking about logic, this phenomenon created a hypothesis like this:

"Different chemical substances would give different biological activities. Biological activities determine the health benefits that we can get. Thus, each type of bee propolis would give a different health benefits for us."

You might find CAPE as an active anti cancer compound in European poplar-based propolis, but you won't likely find it in Brazilian propolis where Baccharian.sp is used as the source.

Explanation Behinds Chemical Diversity

What thing that makes the chemical substances different? First of all, we need to keep in mind that propolis is not directly produced like the way bees produce their venom. Bee venom produced directly from their body, while propolis is 'manufactured' from particular vegetation. So, the vegetation source is one of the main factor that directly determine its chemical substances. (For more detailed explanation, you can read about how bee propolis is made in this page).

"So, is that means that each propolis gives a different health benefits for us?"

Well, the answer to this kind of question was what experts trying to get. But for a short answer, bee propolis still gives at least the same five health benefits regardless of its chemical differences.

One of the very first research that studying this topic was done by Kujumgiev^[1]. Kujumgiev examined antimicrobial properties of bee propolis from different geographic location. Regardless of its chemical diversity, the result shows that all samples give notable antibiotic effects (antibacterial, antifungal, and antiviral). This fact aligns with the actual function of propolis for bee colonies – as the defender against various diseases, (especially American Foulbrood).

Follow-up Researches

Kujumgiev’s work was then followed up by more studies. Many of those studies focused on a different biological effect of propolis, such as its anti cancer, hepatoprotective, antioxidant effect, anti-inflammatory, etc. Below are some other notable studies that you might need to know:

Study by Popova^[2], assess correspondence between biological activity and geographic location of bee propolis samples from Europe, Brazil and Central America by using statistical approach (Analysis of variance/ANOVA). Based on the study, it is found that European and Brazilian propolis have identical activity even though each of them contains different chemical substances.

Study by Kumazawa^[3], examined the antioxidant effect of bee propolis from numerous geographic location. He used sample from many regions such as Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina, Chile, China, Thailand, New Zealand, South Africa, Ukraine, Bulgaria, Austria, Hungary, United States and Uzbekistan. In this research, Kumazawa performed chemical analysis to identify and measure the result. He found 17 phenolic compounds from 16 types of different propolis sample. Each of bee propolis gives notable antioxidant effect, where significant antioxidant activity is originated from anti oxidative substances such as phenethyl caffeate or kaempferol.

The Top 5 List

The top 5 list of bee propolis benefits is compiled based on the fact that these theurapetic effects can be found on every sample of bee propolis from all over the world, regardless of its chemical variability. They are:

Antibacterial (including anti fungal, and some of them along with antiviral)
Anti-inflammatory
Anti tumor/Anti cancer
Hepatoprotective (capability to prevent damage to the liver)
Antioxidant activity

For a quick review, here is the table^[10] that shows us the detailed theurapetic effects along with its accountable compounds:

	Bee Propolis Type
	*European Propolis (poplar type)*	*Brazilian Propolis (Baccharis type)*	*Cuban Propolis*	*Taiwanese Propolis*
Antibacterial	Flavanones, flavones, phenolic acids and their esters ^[4]	Prenylated p-coumaric acids, labdane diterpenes^[5]	Prenylated benzophenones ^[7]	Unidentified
Anti-inflammatory	Flavanones, flavones, phenolic acids and their esters ^[5]	Unidentified ^[5]	Unidentified^[5]	Unidentified
Antitumor	Caffeic acid phenethyl ester^[6]	Prenylated p-coumaric acids, clerodane diterpenes, benzofuranes^[5]	Prenylated benzophenones ^[8]	Prenylated flavanones ^[9]
Hepatoprotective	Caffeic acid, ferulic acids acid, caffeic acid their esters^[5]	Prenylated p-coumaric acis, flavonoids, lignans, caffeoyl quinic acids^[5]	Unidentified^[5]	Unidentified
Antioxidant	Flavonoids, phenolic and their esters^[1]	Prenylated p-coumaric acis, flavonoids^[5]	Prenylated benzophenones ^[8]	Prenylated flavanones ^[9]

All of the studies (which bring this particular topic) show us a very clear prove that even though the source and the exact chemical substances are different, bee propolis still gives at least those five theurapetic effects for us.

The New Problems: Standardization, Exact Dosage, and Health Claims

Despite the good news, there is a problem that caused by this wide chemical diversity. Indeed, it doesn’t affect the kinds of health benefits that you might get, but it does affect the significance level.

For example, in terms of antibacterial effects:

It is found that antibacterial activity of Brazilian bee propolis and Europe was significantly higher compared to Central American propolis^[1]. While in other comparative study, researchers find that propolis from Brazil, Peru, Netherlands and China has equally significant hepatoprotective and free radical scavenging activity. However, it is not the same with their cytotoxic activity. The most significant cytotoxic activity belongs to Propolis from Netherland and China, while bee propolis from Peru shows a weaker cytotoxic activity^[2]

This different significance level is not only assessed for antibacterial and cytotoxic activity. There are many other comparative studies which assess possible therapeutic effects of propolis, such as its antifungal, anti cancer, antiviral and so on.

Like it or not, those scientific studies show us undeniable fact that propolis gives different significance level of health benefits due to its chemical diversity; which then, leads to standardization and health claim issues. Until this day, there is no international standard that can ensure consumers to get maximum benefits.

This also explains the reason of why the dosage is widely varied and can’t be strictly determined. The most accurate information of suitable dosage will be the oneissued by the manufacturers who comply with authorities (i.e: EFSA, or FDA).

Your understanding about the concept of propolis dosage and allergy can be very helpful.

References:

Kjumgiev A, Tsvetkova I, Serkedjieva Yu, Bankova V, Christov R, Popov S. Antibacterial, antifungal and antiviral activity of propolis from different geographic origins. J Ethnopharmacol. 1999;64:235–40.
Popova M, Bankova V, Naydensky Ch, Tsvetkova I, Kujumgiev A. Comparative study of the biological activity of propolis from different geographic origin: a statistical approach. Macedonian Pharm Bull. 2004;50:9–14
Kumazawa Sh, Hamasaka T, Nakayama Ts. Antioxidant activity of propolis of various geographic origins. Food Chem. 2004;84:329–39
Burdock GA. Review of the biological properties and toxicity of propolis Food Chem Toxicol. 1998;36:347–63.
Banskota AH, Tezuka Y, Kadota Sh. Recent progress in pharmacological research of propolis. Phytother Res. 2000;15:561–71.
Grunberger D, Banerjee R, Eisinger K, et al. Preferential cytotoxicity on tumor cells by caffeic acid phenethyl ester isolated from propolis. Experientia. 1988;44:230–2.
Hernandez NMR, Cuesta Rubio O, Aviles A, Avellanede DLS. Actividad antimicrobiana de nemorosona aislada de Clusia rosea. Rev Cubana Farm. 2001;35(Suppl Especial):197–9.
Cuesta Rubio O, Frontana-Uriba BA, Ramirez-Apan T, Cardenas J. Polyisoprenylated benzophenones in Cuban bee propolis; biological activity of nemorosone. Z Naturforsch. 2002;57c:372–8.
Chen Ch, Weng M, Wu Ch, Lin J. Comparison of radical scavenging activity, cytotoxic effects and apoptosis induction in human melanoma cells by Taiwanese propolis from different sources. eCAM. 2004;1:175–85.
Bankova V. Recent trends and important developments in propolis research. eCAM. 2005;2:29–32.
Banksota AH, Tezuka Y, Adnyana IK, et al. Cytotoxic, hepatoprotective and free radical scavenging effects of from Brazil, Peru, the Netherlands and China. J Ethnopharmacol. 2000;72:239–46.

Bee Propolis Dosage: How Much Is Too Much?

2012-11-03T04:29:00.003-07:00

Safety studies have found it to be non toxic when taken orally, and also appears to be non-irritating when applied to skin^[1], unless for people who has hypersensitivity (propolis allergy). In addition, there are very few propolis side effect reactions that have been recorded in the written documents, so, the product is considered generally not to be harmful^[2].

Regardless of the claims above, somehow, we just feel the urgency to know the exact figure of its dosage. The first question that arises in my head was:

If bee propolis claimed as a very safe supplement, what is the upper limit? How much that is categorized as too much?

And then, my second question was:

Is there any recommended bee propolis dosage for specific medication purpose?

In my opinion, these two questions are very reasonable, especially when we consider it for alternative medication purpose. However, in this article I only explain about the first question, while the second question will be answered in other article

Complete Guide To Propolis Allergy

2012-11-01T23:58:00.001-07:00

Propolis allergy is caused by some of its constituents. The very first detected chemical substance that is responsible in propolis allergy was LB-1^[1]. LB-1 is consistently found in every chemical dissolution process from various bee propolis and poplar bud samples ^[2]. At the very beginning, LB-1 was initially identified to be entirely composed of 1, 1-dimethylallyl caffeic acid ester^[2,3],but then as it has been shown by the latest study, LB-1 consist of other chemical substance:

3-Methyl-2-butenyl caffeate, methyl-2-butenyl caffeate and 3-methyl-3-butenyl caffeate ^[1].
Phenylethyl caffeate

Flare as a result to positive reaction to propolis allergy.
Source: http://ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3120007/

Among those chemical substance 3-Methyl-2-butenyl caffeate acts as the most powerful allergen factor^[4,5]. It draws out a strong response found in subject experiment who acknowledge suffer to propolis allergy. The same result is also identified with phenylethyl caffeate.

Later, it is determined that the main chemical substances which directy cause propolis allergy are 3-methyl-2-butenyl caffeate and phenylethyl caffeate.

Aside from those two main allergens, there are also several more that is considered as moderate sensitizer^[6]:

Benzyl isoferulate (Based on Hausen experiment, it is considered a noteworthy sensitizer)^[5].
Coniferyl benzoate. This substance exists in fresh samples of balsam of Peru, while in propolis it has been detected only once so far ^[2].
Benzyl salicylate and benzyl cinnamate.

Many other studies show that people who suffer to propolis allergy don’t show any reaction to those sensitizers ^[5]. However, people who suffer to propolis allergy still should be warned about potential reactions to cosmetics or products containing these substances.

Flavonoids and other compounds such as waxes, fatty acids, essential oils, pollen, and other organics and minerals have no capability as allergen^[7,8].

Bee Propolis At A Glance

2012-10-31T01:17:00.000-07:00

What Is Bee Propolis?

Bee propolis or also refered as bee glue is a beehive product, similar to honey and royal jelly. Basically, it is a mixture of different resins that bees gather from various vegetation around them^[1]. Usually, the resin comes from tree buds, or sap flows. During the gathering process, they blend it together with their saliva^[2] or are at least, they partially metabolize it^[3]

What is the use of propolis for bee colonies?

Originally, the term itself comes from Greek. It is devised by Aristotle from two main words: ‘pro’ and ‘polis’. ‘Pro’ (προ ) means ‘before’ while ‘polis’ (πόλις) means ‘city’. As a complete term, propolis means ‘Defense of The City’. This literal definition is the actual function for bee colonies.

It is already proven that bee propolis has a very complex chemical composition. There are more than 300 chemical components that have been identified so far – most of them have specific biological properties, such as antioxidant, antibacterial, antifungal, and antiviral effect^[4]

So, in scientific point of view, propolis acts as natural antibiotic agent, protecting the colonies against harmful microbes, especially from Bacillus larvae^[7] that cause a fatal disease called American foulbrood.

In technical point of view, bees use it to repair and seal-off any fracture or hole that is found in their hive, especially fracture and hole within brood combs – Brood comb is one of bee hive structure where the queen bee lays eggs. It is also the place to raise new brood/bee larva.

Another function is to decrease the hive entrance capacity. By doing this, the colony get at least two benefits:

Bees are purged from harmful microbes.
Bees have to creep via a narrow canal that has been coated by propolis every time they want to enter or leave their hive. By doing this, bees can keep themselves hygiene.

Propolis Side Effects – 3 Possible Dangers That You Should Know

2012-10-28T19:24:00.000-07:00

Considering the number of negative cases in literatures, bee propolis can be claimed as a very safe supplement. The only side effect which taken seriously by most people is allergic reaction. A journal from Italy, titled Surveillance ofsuspected adversereactions to natural health products: the case of propolis gives us clear example about how bad this side effect can be. It is reported that during 5 years period (2002 – 2007), there are:

16 reports about allergic reactions in a form of dermatitis and/or respiratory problem,
2 reports regarding digestive tract.

From those total 18 cases, there are 6 patients who go to emergency departments, and 2 patients suffer life-threatening side effects.

Even though the number of incidents is pretty much low, it is much better that we know the risk.

The Other Side Effects

Regardless of its allergic reaction, systemic toxicity of bee propolis is not something that often reported, and hence, may be underestimated. When I dig deeper about this topic, there are at least three possible side effects that might be caused by propolis consumption:

Acute renal failure
Mutagenic and Genotoxic
Cytotoxic effect