Royal Jelly Benefits - Review

Royal Jelly Abstract

Royal jelly is the food for larvae which will develop into queen bees. Royal jelly is secreted from the worker bees' salivary glands, which contains a mixture of sterols, glycosides, fatty acids, minerals, vitamins and a large amount of proteins.  The key potential benefits of royal jelly are anti-inflammatory and anti-cancer activities.

Royal Jelly Composition

Royal Jelly, the sole food for the queen bee, contains nucleic acids, ATP, ADP, AMP, different kinds of minerals, B-vitamins, vitamins A, C, D, E and K. Thus, it is very nutritious. 

Royal Jelly Dosage

It varies from products to products. For most products, the unit dose is 500 mg of fresh royal jelly or 167 mg of freeze-dried royal jelly. Most products recommended 1-2 unit dose daily.

Royal Jelly Benefits

Royal jelly benefits are many, but more clinical studies are needed to support the claims. Anyway, here are selected studies:

Royal jelly - an anti-aging agent?

Royal jelly prolongs the life span of mice however royal jelly has longevity benefits in humans is unclear.[1]

Royal jelly and blood pressure

Royal jelly protein hydrolysate shows blood pressure lowering effects in spontaneously hypertensive rats. [2]

Royal jelly and Cholesterol

A study in humans shows royal jelly supplements lower cholesterol levels. [3]

Royal jelly, Fatigue, energy and endurance

All mice were forced to swim for 15 min once; then the maximum swimming time to fatigue was measured after a rest period. The swimming endurance of the royal jelly group significantly increased compared with those of the other groups. The mice in the royal jelly group showed significantly decreased accumulation of serum lactate and serum ammonia and decreased depletion of muscle glycogen after swimming compared with the other groups. [4]

Royal Jelly side effects and caution

A number of cases of allergic reactions to royal jelly has been reported. Asthma, together with anaphylaxis, have been observed in subjects following ingestion of royal jelly. [5] A case of a 53-year-old woman with abdominal pain and bloody diarrhoea has been reported. [6] Prior to the onset of symptoms the patient had taken royal jelly for 25 days. Further royal jelly has blood thinning properties and hence those on blood thinning agents should be cautious.

Availability

Royal jelly is available in the forms of fresh royal jelly, pure, honey, capsule and combined with other supplements such as ginseng.

Summary and review

There are few human trials with royal jelly, therefore, it is difficult to say what long term benefit and side effects royal jelly would have if consumed daily. The ideal royal jelly dosage in humans is also unknown.

 Reference

[1] Royal Jelly prolongs the life span of C3H/HeJ mice: correlation with reduced DNA damage.

Exp Gerontol. 2003. [2]Antihypertensive effect of peptides from royal jelly in spontaneously hypertensive rats. Biol Pharm Bull. 2004. [3] Royal jelly supplementation improves lipoprotein metabolism in humans. J Nutr Sci Vitaminol. 2007. [4] Anti-fatigue effect of fresh royal jelly in mice., J Nutr Sci Vitaminol 2001. [5] Food-induced anaphylaxis caused by ingestion of royal jelly. J Dermatol. 2006.[6] Case report: haemorrhagic colitis associated with royal jelly intake. J Gastroenterol Hepatol. 1997.[7] Royal jelly consumption and hypersensitivity in the community., Clin Exp Allergy. 1997. [8] Asthma and anaphylaxis induced by royal jelly. Clin Exp Allergy. 1996.