Written by Jessica Patella, ND. Six months of taking royal jelly improved red blood cell production, glucose tolerance, and a measure of mental health.
Royal jelly comes from honeybees and it is a food the worker bees make for the queen bee (1). Royal jelly is unique in the fact that it contains proteins (12-15%), sugars (10-12%), fats (3-7%), amino acids, vitamins and minerals.
Recent research was done on healthy volunteers to determine how royal jelly affects humans (1). The research included 61 healthy volunteers from 42-83 years of age. The participants were randomly divided into two groups, a royal jelly group (n=31) and a control group (n=30). The royal jelly group took 100 ml of liquid daily that contained 3000mg of royal jelly, for six months. The control group received the same volume of liquid but without royal jelly added (1).
A total of 8 participants withdrew from the study; 3 in the royal jelly group and 5 in the control group. The participants did not have any severe side effects and reported varying symptoms, including abdominal fullness, diarrhea, and dislike of the taste (1).
After six months there were significant differences between the two groups. The differences were found in red blood cell counts (+0.16×10^6 /microL for the RJ group vs. -0.01×10^6 /μL for the control group, P=0.0134), hematocrit (+0.9% vs. – 0.8%, P=0.0251), fasting plasma glucose (+0.01 ± 0.01 log mg/dL vs. +0.05 ± 0.01 log mg/dL, P=0.0297), insulinogenic index (+0.25 vs. -0.13, P=0.0319), dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate (DHEA-S) (+0.08 log μg/dL vs. +0.20 log μg/dL, P=0.0483), testosterone (+0.12 ± 0.04 log ng/mL vs. -0.02 ± 0.05 log ng/mL, P=0.0416), and in one of the subscale scores of mental health (SF-36) (+4 vs. -7, P=0.0276).
There were no significant differences in body mass index, waist circumference, lipids, liver function, kidney function, blood pressure, hemoglobin A1C, or bone density (1).
In conclusion, six months of taking royal jelly improved red blood cell production, glucose tolerance and a measure of mental health (1). Further research with more participants and to determine how royal jelly affects these areas of the body is still needed.
Source: Morita, Hiroyuki, et al. “Effect of royal jelly ingestion for six months on healthy volunteers.” Nutrition journal 11.1 (2012): 77.
© 2012 Morita et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)
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Posted October 30, 2012.
Jessica Patella, ND, is a naturopathic physician specializing in nutrition and homeopathic medicine and offers a holistic approach to health. Visit her website at www.awarenesswellness.com.
References:
- Hiroyuki, M et al. Effect of royal jelly ingestion for six months on healthy volunteers. Nut J. 2012; 11:77 doi: 10.1186/1475-2891-11-77.
- Guo H, et al. Royal jelly supplementation improves lipoprotein metabolism in humans. J Nutr Sci Vitaminol (Tokyo) 2007, 53(4):345–348.
- Yakoot M, et al. Effectiveness of a herbal formula in women with menopausal syndrome. Forsch Komplementmed 2011, 18(5):264–268.
- Abdelhafiz AT, Muhamad JA: Midcycle pericoital intravaginal bee honey and royal jelly for male factor infertility. Int J Gynaecol Obstet 2008, 101(2):146–149.
