Beesfor Development Journal 82
Practical beekeeping
PROPOLIS
Is propolis antibiotic? Yes, it has been proved that propolis kills bacteria. There are many claims for the medicinal properties of propolis.
Propolis is the sticky 'glue' used by honey bees. Propolis is usually coloured dark brown, although it can be yellow, green, grey or red. Plants are literally rooted to the spot where they grow. This means that if threatened by an enemy, they cannot run away or hide. Plants therefore protect themselves with chemical defence systems. These include toxins, bitter tastes and stinging repellents. Tender buds would provide tasty snacks for insects unless defended, and often a plant protects its buds with sticky gums. When a tree is wounded it secretes resin around the wound as the first stage of the healing process. Humans derive great benefit from these powerful plant chemicals, and many medicines and drugs are derived from plants. Everyday substances include aspirin (from willow trees), caffeine (from coffee), menthol (from mint plants) and penicillin (from a fungus).
How do you harvest propolis? To encourage bees to produce conveniently-sized propolis, place a perforated, plastic grid in the hive. This is a piece of plastic with small holes - not more than 6 mm. The bees will seal up the slots with propolis. Take out the grid and put it in a freezer. When cold enough, flexing the sheet will cause the propolis pieces to drop out. It might be possible to harvest 50 g per hive per season this way.
How much is propolis worth? World price is currently around US$50 (€38) per kg (but this depends very much on the quality). Source: Bee Vital, January 2007
What do bees use propolis for?
How do bees collect propolis?
Apis mellifera honey bees use propolis to keep their homes dry, cosy and hygienic. The propolis coating makes the walls of their nesting place waterproof and draught-proof. Propolis is used to seal up any cracks or gaps where micro-organisms could flourish. The volatile oils in propolis must serve as a kind of antiseptic air-freshener.
The bee bites off scraps of plant resin with her mandibles and packs them into the corbiculae (pollen baskets) on her hind legs (see picture below). Each corbicula can carry about 10 mg of propolis. Because of its stickiness, propolis gathering is a slow business: it can take an hour to fill both baskets. Back at the hive, unloading can take another hour. Propolis is only collected when the temperature is above 18°C. Sometimes bees collect man-made materials and use these in the same way as 'real' propolis. For example bees will collect drying paints, road tar or varnish. Presumably to bees, these substances have a consistency and strong odour similar to plant resins.
As a building material to decrease the size of nest entrances, and to make them smooth for passing bee traffic. A thin layer is used to varnish inside brood cells before the queen lays eggs into them. Presumably this provides a strong, waterproof and hygienic unit for developing larvae. To embalm bodies of mice or other predators too large for them to eject from the nest: these would otherwise decay and be a source of infection. Apis florea, one of the Asian honey bee species, deters enemies by using rings of propolis (like grease bands) to coat the branch from which its single-comb nest is suspended.
PROPOLIS CLEANSING Finighang Aaron Ndichia, Cameroon
It is not possible to define propolis any more than it is possible to define honey - it all depends what is available to the bees. In general, propolis consists of resins, waxes, volatile oils and pollen, also vitamins, minerals and plant chemicals like flavonoids. The problem for people marketing propolis commercially is to obtain a standardised product.
To actually confirm that propolis works well against toothache, gastric and other illnesses, I sacrificed small pieces of propolis to those suffering from the above mentioned diseases in my training workshops. All the reports have been positive. For my twelve years of work with beekeepers and non-beekeepers, many have been treated for their ailments.
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So what exactly is in propolis?
No known herbalist has ever prepared a drug like propolis. Bees are the highest herbalists. Go to the side of a newly dug track and you find honey bees and bumble bees collecting sap coming out of cut roots. Sometimes you find bees visiting the buds of a plant which is not in flower and you wonder what the bees are taking from the plant. They may be collecting materials to prepare propolis. Sometimes you find bees on the wounded part of a tree bark collecting resin for propolis. I remember a day I went to consult a traditional doctor about my gastritis. My drug was prepared out of the barks, roots and very young branches of trees, and I was cured of my gastric pains. I observed my nephew cleaning his teeth against toothache with a red-brown liquid boiled out from the barks of trees. It had taken him weeks and the toothache was only subsiding. When I gave him propolis to chew against the tooth, he gave me an exciting report: the toothache stopped in a few hours.
A honey bee with propolis packed into the corbiculae (pollen baskets) on her hind legs
Do all honey bees collect propolis? No: Apis cerana is one honey bee species that does not use propolis. Different races of Apis mellifera use propolis to different extents: Apis mellifera caucasica is known for its high collection of propolis.
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