Propolis

Honeybees buzz around tirelessly to make the sweet honey we love to eat and use in medicines, but there's more in the hive than meets the eye.

Bees also make propolis, a sticky substance made from horse chestnut and willow trees (among others). These resins safeguard the colony with serious germ-fighting power, halting the spread of bacteria and fungi into beehives.

The secret lies in its antibacterial flavonoids, like pinocembrin and galangin, which rupture microbial cell walls and shut down vital bacterial enzymes.

But propolis doesn't just battle bacteria – it's antifungal, too, inhibiting the drug-resistant Candida yeasts responsible for persistent mouth, throat, and genital infections.

A Quick P

As spring beckons us outdoors with sunshine and colourful blooms, pollen allergies rear their sniffly heads for many. But the industrious honeybee may have created a solution for us between their pollen baskets - meet bee pollen.

These tiny golden granules packed with nutrients might help strengthen our body's defences against the inflammation of hay fever. The same properties nourishing young bees may also bolster our immune resilience this season.

Bee Propolis

Spring often carries a sting in its pollen-laden breezes - seasonal allergy irritation! Before we resign ourselves to a box of tissues as our outdoor companion, let's also consider a sticky substance from honeybees called propolis.

Honeybees collect resins and buds from trees and plants to produce the sticky substance propolis. They use this material throughout the hive as a protective sealant and disinfecting agent. The propolis acts as a medicinal defence system for the bee colony, guarding against harmful bacteria and fungi that might otherwise threaten the health of the hive community.

In other words, bees make building blocks and medicine - not just honey.

But where there's sugar, there's humans, who have harvested bee propolis for centuries to treat wounds and fend off infections.

But is there any science behind it? It turns out there is. Studies indicate propolis packs serious germ-fighting power – it can stop the spread of bacteria, fungi, and treat cold sores, genital herpes, neurodermatitis, gum d