What is Royal jelly?

Royal jelly is a bee secretion used to provide nourishment to larvae and adult queen bees.It is secreted by glands in the hypopharynx of nurse bees and feeds all larvae in the colony,regardless of sex or caste.In the process of creating a new queen,worker ants build special queen cells.The larvae in these cells feed on large amounts of royal jelly.This type of feeding triggers the development of queen bee morphology,including fully developed ovaries needed for egg laying.Royal jelly is sometimes used in alternative medicine under the apitherapy category.It is often sold as a dietary supplement for humans,but the European Food Safety Authority has concluded that the current evidence does not support claims that consuming royal jelly has any health benefits in humans.In the United States, the Food and Drug Administration has taken legal action against companies that advertise royal jelly products with unfounded health benefits.

Production 

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

Protein

Major royal jelly proteins (MRJP) are a family of proteins secreted by bees.The family consists of nine proteins, of which MRJP1 (also known as royalactin), MRJP2,MRJP3,MRJP4 and MRJP5 are present in royal jelly secreted by worker bees.MRJP1 is the most abundant and the largest.These five proteins make up 83-90% of the total protein in royal jelly.Royal jelly has been used in traditional medicine since ancient times, and MRJPs are proven to be the main medicinal ingredients.They are synthesized by a family of nine genes (mrjp genes) that are members of the yellow gene family,for example in Drosophila and bacteria.They are thought to be involved in the differential development of queen and worker larvae,thereby establishing a division of labor in the colony.

Epigenetic effects

Honeybee queens and workers represent one of the most striking examples of environmental control of phenotypic polymorphism.Even when two larvae have the same DNA and one is raised as a worker ant and the other as a queen,the two adults can differ considerably in a wide range of characteristics,including differences in anatomy and physiology,lifespan and reproductive capacity.Queen bees constitute the female sexual caste and possess a large number of active ovaries,while female worker bees have only underdeveloped,inactive ovaries and are functionally sterile.The developmental divide between queen and worker bees is epigenetically controlled by differential feeding of royal jelly;this appears to be due to the protein royalactin.Female larvae destined to become queens are fed copious amounts of royal jelly;this triggers a chain of molecular events that leads to the development of a queen have 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 had royal jelly-like effects on larval developmental trajectories;most individuals with reduced levels of DNA methylation became queens with fully developed ovaries.This finding suggests that DNA methylation in honeybees allows the expression of epigenetic information to be differentially altered in response to nutrient input.

Human use

Cultivation

Royal jelly is harvested by stimulating the colony with movable frame hives to produce queen bees.Royal jelly was collected from each individual queen cell (hive) when the queen bee larvae were approximately four days old.These are the only cells that hold a lot of money; when royal jelly is fed to worker bee larvae, it is fed directly to them,who consume it as they produce, and the cells of royal jelly "store" royal jelly faster than the larvae can consume it much faster.Therefore, harvesting of royal jelly is practical only in queen cells.A well-managed hive can produce approximately 500 grams (18 oz) of royal jelly over a 5-6 month season.Due to the perishable nature of the product,producers must have immediate access to proper refrigeration (eg, household refrigerators or freezers) where royal jelly is stored until sold or shipped to collection centres.Sometimes honey or beeswax is added to royal jelly, which is thought to help it preserve.

Side effects

Royal jelly may cause allergic reactions in humans ranging from hives and asthma to even fatal anaphylaxis.The incidence of allergic side effects in people consuming royal jelly is unknown. People with other allergies are at a higher risk of being allergic to royal jelly.