Royal jelly

Royal jelly is a honey bee secretion that is used in the nutrition of larvae, as well as adult queens. It is secreted from the glands in the hypopharynx of nurse bees, and fed to all larvae in the colony, regardless of sex or hierarchy.

When a bee hive is making new queens, the workers construct special queen cells, and the larvae in these cells are fed with copious amounts of royal jelly. This type of feeding triggers the development of queen morphology, including the fully developed ovaries needed to lay eggs.

Royal jelly is widely marketed as a dietary supplement. It is an alternative medicine that falls under the category of apitherapy. Both the European Food Safety Authority and United States Food and Drug Administration have concluded that the current evidence does not support the claim of health benefits, and have actively discouraged the sale and consumption of the jelly. In the United States, the Food and Drug Administration has taken legal action against companies that have used unfounded claims of health benefits to market royal jelly products. There have also been documented cases of allergic reactions, namely hives, asthma, and anaphylaxis, due to consumption of royal jelly.

Production 
Royal jelly is secreted from the glands in the heads of worker bees and is fed to all bee larvae, whether they are destined to become drones (males), workers (sterile females), or queens (fertile females). After three days, the drone and worker larvae are no longer fed with royal jelly, but queen larvae continue to be fed this special substance throughout their development.

Composition 
Royal jelly is 67% water, 12.5% protein, 11% simple sugars (monosaccharides), 6% fatty acids and 3.5% 10-hydroxy-2-decenoic acid (10-HDA). It also contains trace minerals, antibacterial and antibiotic components, pantothenic acid (vitamin B5), pyridoxine (vitamin B6) and trace amounts of vitamin C, but none of the fat-soluble vitamins: A, D, E or K.

Proteins 

Major royal jelly proteins (MRJPs) are a family of proteins secreted by honey bees. The family consists of nine proteins, of which MRJP1 (also called royalactin), MRJP2, MRJP3, MRJP4, and MRJP5 are present in the royal jelly secreted by worker bees. MRJP1 is the most abundant, and largest in size. The five proteins constitute 83–90% of the total proteins in royal jelly. Royal jelly has been used in traditional medicine since ancient times, and the MRJPs are shown to be the main medicinal components. They are synthesised by a family of nine genes (mrjp genes), which are in turn members of the yellow family of genes such as in the fruitfly (Drosophila) and bacteria.  They are attributed to be involved in differential development of queen larva and worker larvae, thus establishing division of labour in the bee colony.

Epigenetic effects 
The honey bee queens and workers represent one of the most striking examples of environmentally controlled phenotypic polymorphism. Even if two larvae had identical DNA, one raised to be a worker, the other a queen, the two adults would be strongly differentiated across a wide range of characteristics including anatomical and physiological differences, longevity, and reproductive capacity. Queens constitute the female sexual caste and have large active ovaries, whereas female workers have only rudimentary, inactive ovaries and are functionally sterile.  The queen–worker developmental divide is controlled epigenetically by differential feeding with royal jelly; this appears to be due specifically to the protein royalactin. A female larva destined to become a queen is fed large quantities of royal jelly; this triggers a cascade of molecular events resulting in development of a queen.  It has been shown that this phenomenon is mediated by an epigenetic modification of DNA known as CpG methylation. Silencing the expression of an enzyme that methylates DNA in newly hatched larvae led to a royal jelly-like effect on the larval developmental trajectory; the majority of individuals with reduced DNA methylation levels emerged as queens with fully developed ovaries. This finding suggests that DNA methylation in honey bees allows the expression of epigenetic information to be differentially altered by nutritional input.

Use by humans 
Royal jelly is collected and sold as a dietary supplement for humans, but the European Food Safety Authority has concluded that the current evidence does not support the claim that consuming royal jelly will give health benefits in humans. In the United States, the Food and Drug Administration has taken legal action against companies that have used unfounded claims of health benefits to market royal jelly products.

Cultivation 
Royal jelly is harvested by stimulating colonies with movable frame hives to produce queen bees. Royal jelly is collected from each individual queen cell (honeycomb) when the queen larvae are about four days old. 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 center. Sometimes honey or beeswax is added to the royal jelly, which is thought to aid its preservation.

Adverse effects 
Royal jelly may cause allergic reactions in humans ranging from hives, asthma, to even fatal anaphylaxis. The incidence of allergic side effects in people who consume royal jelly is unknown. The risk of having an allergy to royal jelly is higher in people who have other allergies.

See also 
 3-Hydroxydecanoic acid
 3,10-Dihydroxydecanoic acid
 3,11-Dihydroxydodecanoic acid
 Bee propolis
 Queen bee acid

Notes

References 

 
 
 
 
 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.
 
 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.
 
 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.
 
 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
 
 
 
 
 Kucharski R, Maleszka, J, Foret, S, Maleszka, R, Nutritional Control of Reproductive Status in Honeybees via DNA Methylation. Science. 2008 Mar 28;319(5871):1827-3
 
 
 
 
 Maleszka, R, Epigenetic integration of environmental and genomic signals in honey bees: the critical interplay of nutritional, brain and reproductive networks. Epigenetics. 2008, 3, 188–192.
 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.
 
 
 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.
 
 Winston, M, The Biology of the Honey Bee, 1987, Harvard University Press

External links 
 

Category:Bee products
Category:Dietary supplements
Category:Beekeeping
Category:Animal glandular products