Royal Jelly: The three essential facts

So far, we´ve talked about Bee Pollen, Propolis, and Honey. These three are the only ones bees collect from nature and somewhat transform from all the bee products.

However, other products that bees produce themselves from specialized glands in their bodies are Royal Jelly, Beeswax, and Venom.

We´ll talk about the last two in future posts; let´s dive deep into Royal Jelly´s facts.

Contents hide

1 Where does Royal Jelly come from?

2 How is Royal Jelly harvested?

3 Royal Jelly Facts

4 How to consume it?

Where does Royal Jelly come from?

Royal Jelly (RJ) is a white secretion from the Hypopharyngeal (HfGld) (That’s a mouthful) glands located in the head of worker bees.

Young worker bees (8-12 days) have these glands developed the most, and they produce the RJ to feed young larvae. Larvae are fed this “milk” from day 1 to 3, except for larvae that will transform into a queen.

The latter larvae are provided with RJ in ample amounts during the whole larval period that lasts five days. This royal substance is rich in proteins, fats, sugars, vitamins, and minerals paramount to the development of bees.

Drawing of the glands in the body of a honey bee — Honeybee’s Glands

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Larvae on Royal Jelly inside cells — Cells containing young larvae on Royal Jelly and eggs on the right

How is Royal Jelly harvested?

Beekeepers can induce honeybees to produce larger amounts than average to harvest RJ commercially.

For this to happen, the beekeeper has to transfer larvae from their cells to plastic or wax queen cups to simulate a developing queen, so bees will fill these cells with sufficient amounts to be collected (See image below).

Artificial queen cells full of Royal Jelly ready to be harvested — Queen cells full of Royal Jelly ready to be harvested

Royal Jelly Facts

RJ is a true superfood. The literature reports that RJ is composed of sugars (7.5 to 15% and about 80% of them are Glucose and Fructose), proteins (it contains more than 50% of its dry weight), free amino acids (essential and non-essential), peptides (most of them have antioxidant properties), vitamins (see table below), minerals and trace minerals, and probably the most critical nutrient in RJ are different kinds of fats.

These are the ones that give Royal Jelly most of its Health Properties. (J.M. Alvarez-Suarez (ed.), Bee Products – Chemical and Biological Properties, 2017)

Vitamin content of royal jelly — The vitamin content of Royal Jelly

So, all these nutrients, especially fatty acids, provide RJ with excellent potential to prevent and treat several health issues.

Research has found that RJ has the following effects: immunomodulation (has positive effects on cancer, allergy, and inflammation), antibacterial, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, vasodilative, hypotensive, hypocholesterolemic, hepatoprotective, and antitumor activity.

The literature on these topics is too vast for this post; however, you can read this recent book to know more about the RJ health benefits.

Want to learn about Bee Pollen Benefits?

How to consume it?

An image showing larvae floating on top of a good amount of royal jelly — Larvae floating on Royal Jelly

Royal jelly comes in two presentations, fresh and lyophilized (dehydrated at freezing temperatures, so it keeps all its nutrients). If you want to consume RJ fresh, there are some considerations to keep in mind.

This product is very susceptible to environmental factors, so it must be protected from them. When harvested, it has to be frozen immediately and kept that way all the time, and it has to be in dark containers so the sunlight does not damage its fatty acids.

Bees on a frame adapted to hold cells to produce RJ — Bees on a frame modified to hold cells to produce Royal Jelly

The dehydrated version is in capsules and can be kept on the counter without refrigeration but away from direct sunlight.

There are no official recommendations on RJ consumption on how much you can take daily. However, the research suggests that anyone can benefit by taking 1 to 3 grams daily.

Did you know you can Eat Honeycomb? Read this post to learn more.

Can Bee Pollen go bad? Learn this post next.

Finally, we have recently been featured in GoSolo magazine; find the whole article here.

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