BACKGROUND Royal jelly is a widely ingested supplement for health, but its effects on humans are not well known. The objective was to evaluate the effects of long-term royal jelly ingestion on humans. METHODS We conducted a randomized placebo-controlled, double-blind trial. A total of 61 healthy volunteers aged 42-83 years were enrolled and were randomly divided into a royal jelly group (n = ...

Our earlier paper has reported that Wharton's jelly is a reservoir of several peptide growth factors, including acidic and basic fibroblast growth factors (aFGF and bFGF, respectively). Both can be extracted by buffered salts solutions in the form of high molecular mass complexes, probably with a component(s) of the extracellular matrix. Both aFGF and bFGF from such extracts hardly penetrate 10...

Background. Royal jelly is a milky material secreted by the pharyngeal glands of young worker bees , which when fed as a sole nutrient to larvae causes the development of sexual mature queen bees. The unusual nature of this material has prompted different investigations into its biological/pharmacological/microbiological properties. As an part of the biological activity of royal jelly, an inves...

Rearing bee queens is almost done utilizing grafting young larvae while the effects of using old after collection royal jelly on quality are not known. In fact, production depends grafting, then discarding to collect jelly. This study aimed investigate this point by removing them from their original cells without food. Larvae at age about 2 days were grafted into plastic queen cell cups (select...

A block to polyspermy in amphibians is established at fertilization by the conversion of the vitelline envelope to the fertilization envelope. In Xenopus laevis a major ultrastructural change in the envelope at fertilization is the appearance of an electron-dense layer, termed the F layer, between the envelope and the inner-most jelly coat layer, J(1). The F layer is derived, at least in part, ...

One of the most widely used techniques for water content determination in food is Karl Fischer (KF) titration. Compared to other methods based on loss of weight, the primary advantage of the Karl Fischer titration method is its high selectivity to water. The aim of the study was to develop and validate the Karl Fischer method for moisture determination in pollen loads, royal jelly, bee venom an...

Honeybee colonies (Apis mellifera) serve as attractive hosts for a variety of pathogens providing optimal temperatures, humidity, and an abundance of food. Thus, honeybees have to deal with pathogens throughout their lives and, even as larvae they are affected by severe brood diseases like the European Foulbrood caused by Melissococcus plutonius. Accordingly, it is highly adaptive that larval f...

Background & Aims of the Study: Given the importance of microbial contamination in creating food-borne diseases, this study was conducted to assess level of microbial contamination of pastry creams in Hamedan, Iran. Materials and Methods: Totally, 80 samples were randomly collected from the confectioneries and analyzed for microbial contamination according to Iranian nati...