Bee Propolis: Synergistic Health Care for the 21st Century

For well over a century modern science has progressed at a startling
rate. With this increase in knowledge has come medicinal and
healthcare benefits that have seen ages peak and diseases eradicated.
These medical advances were based around the paradigm of the "magic
bullet", isolating the active ingredient and using it to alter the
chemistry of a single molecule/protein to elicit a change of state in
the patient.

Success however has turned to obsession as cracks appear in the
armoury of disease fighting drugs at our disposal. MRSA is rifling
through our hospitals as antibiotics become ineffective and severe
side effects of modern drugs are becoming common place now years
after their introduction. A direct consequence of a one dimensional
strategy, it is maybe the time to acknowledge the synergistic health
benefits of natural medicine.

Propolis is a unique natural medicine because of its breadth of
action. It has antibacterial, antiviral, antifungal, anti-
inflammatory, anti-cancer and immunomodulatory effects, it could help
treat asthma, allergies, arthritis and joint disorders, eczema and
dermatitis, ME, viral infections including HIV and even cancer. This
medicine could help treat an illness or keep you fit and healthy.

Propolis: Defender of the City

Propolis is a mainly resinous substance that bees collect from trees
and plants. Being made up of waxes, resins, fatty acids and even
amino acids. Aristotle reputedly coined the name Propolis
meaning "defender of the city". This is exactly what Propolis is for
the hive, it acts as a bee population's external immune system
keeping the hive sterile and free of microbial invaders

Evidence Based Medicine

In the following paragraphs I will describe to you the
pharmacological properties of Propolis. Before I do so I must explain
where this evidence comes from. All the properties and actions of
Propolis have been witnessed and detailed in scientific studies which
have subsequently been published in journals. The bulk of these
scientific studies have been performed in vitro (i.e. in a test tube)
or in vivo (i.e. in a host animal for example rats), a much smaller
proportion of these studies are clinical trials tested on humans. The
abstracts of these papers can be found on the Medline and pubmed
databases on the Internet.

Propolis: A natural antibiotic

Propolis is probably best known for its antibiotic properties. Even
as early as 1960 French1 research demonstrated the bacteriostatic
action on Bacillus subtilis, Proteus vulgaris and Bacillus alvei. The
results have been replicated many times and Propolis has even been
shown to be effective to MRSA2, the same antibiotic resistant
bacteria that has infected up to 70% of our hospitals. A 1997 study
by Calder et al. at the University of Oxford concurred with these
results and found that the cinnaminic acids and flavanoids present in
Propolis in particular show bacteriocidal action. This action
believed to be as a consequence of Propolis uncoupling the bacterial
energy respiratory chain. Interestingly this action may be involved
in a synergistic action with antibiotics when used together, boosting
the effectiveness of the drugs.

Anti-Viral and immuno-stimulatory

Viruses present a unique dilemma in the quest for good health, they
are not affected by antibiotics and mutate so frequently that
vaccines are hard to produce. They also cause illness by hijacking
cells and using the cells machinery to replicate. Modern drugs aim to
slow or stop the virus from the replicating and subsequently because
they are attacking host cell machinery they have certain side
effects. Viruses perhaps pose the greatest threat to humans' health,
we are currently in the middle of a HIV pandemic with "39.4 million"
people infected world wide. With a Flu pandemic overdue and certainly
on its way and predictions of world wide casualties and chaos, a
solution is needed.

The bioflavanoids in propolis have a unique approach to combating
Viruses, instead of trying to combat them once they have infected a
cell, they lock the virus in its protein coat. This means that the
dangerous machinery and DNA/RNA of the virus is nullified and the
infection stopped.

Propolis has been shown to be more effective than the pharmaceutical
anti-viral acyclovir in treating genital Herpes in a clinical trial
conducted in the Ukraine4 and there is growing evidence that Propolis
could help treat people with HIV5.

Propolis also works hard as an immunomodulator which is of interest
for all of us. It does this by altering the way cytokine production
and release is managed. Cytokines are the chemical messengers that
allow immune system cells to communicate. By altering the cytokine
system, it primes the immune system to be ready to react to antigens
quickly and effectively.

As well as this, bioflavanoids within Propolis stimulate the
production of interferon which can help people recover from ME,
stimulating their immune system. This alteration of the cytokine and
interferon systems means that your body is ready to fight off
infection and keep you healthy, making a case for using propolis as a
supplement for good health, like vitamins. Prevention is better than
the cure.

Anti-inflammatory and anti-allergen

A survey of Propolis consumers showed that arthritis was the health
problem that Propolis was used to treat the most. This is because of
the potent anti-inflammatory properties of the propolis constituents
in particular CAPE (Caffeic acid Phenyl ester), CAPE has been shown
to suppress T cell activation. A paper by Marquez et al in 20046
evaluated this to mean that since T-cells play a key role in the
onset of several inflammatory diseases, CAPE is important because
the this phenolic compound is a potent inhibitor of early and late
events in T-cell receptor-mediated T-cell activation. Results like
this have led other researchers to propose that CAPE is a worthwhile
agent for reducing the severity of conditions associated with
inflammation.

Many of the experiments performed on CAPE were done so in vitro,
however the anti-inflammatory properties of Propolis have been
documented in rats when treating rat adjuvant arthritis. A paper by
Park et al in 19997 concluding that the ethanolic extract of propolis
had profound anti-inflammatory effects on both chronic and acute
arthritic inflammations.

These anti-inflammation properties extend to other illness and
disorders such as asthma and allergies reducing both smooth muscle
airway contraction8 and allergic responses. Any disorder or illness
related to inflammation could be helped by Propolis.

Anti-tumour/cancer

Propolis and CAPE have been shown to reduce the size of tumours and
to selectively destroy and to curb the proliferation of malignant
cells of many different types of cancer. As recently as June 10th
2005 Cancer researchers have been given a grant of a million dollars
to investigate the therapeutic value of Propolis for cancer. Costas
Koumenis the lead investigator for the study was quoted as saying, "a
very interesting property of these compounds is that they have been
shown to cause cell death in tumor cells but not in normal cells."
This study along with other current studies promises to propel
Propolis into the limelight in the field of cancer treatment.

Current Propolis Research in the UK

James Fearnley of BeeVital Research is one of the worlds leading
authorities on Propolis He has written extensively on the subject and
published a major review of all the current research up to 2001 - Bee
Propolis – Natural Healing form the Hive Souvenir Press.
BVR (BeeVital Research) recently won a major government Research and
Development Award, part of a £250,000 research programme looking
at the chemical, biological and clinical properties of propolis.
These studies will focus on the:
1. Documenting the regional variances in chemical and biological
properties, by HPLS, GC-MS and NMR. (Taking place at Univeristy of
Strathclyde)
2. Futher investigating the role of Propolis in the Hive
(University of Gloucester)
3. Dental trials – looking at effectiveness of Propolis for
Mouth Ulcers, Pericorinitis, Gingivitis and Sensitive Teeth.
(Manchester University Dental school)
4. HIV/AIDS trials – looking at the effectiveness of Propolis
with anti-virals in Zambia and Tanzania
5. The effects of standardised propolis on mood, stress, fatigue
and cognition at the Human Cognitive Neuroscience Unit at University
of Newcastle.
6. To evaluate the use of local and non – local propolis for
wound healing and the treatment of skin and other dermatological
problems. ( The Regional Teaching Hospital for University of Dar es
Salaam)


How to use/find propolis products?

A large range of propolis products are available on the market
ranging from tablets, capsules, tinctures and liquids to specialist
products for skin care – soap, lip balm, creams and oral health care –
toothpaste, mouthwash , lozenges and tooth and gum liquid.
Traditionally these have been available through health food stores
but are increasingly available in independent pharmacies.

Choosing the best products is not always easy. Current regulations
means manufacturers cannot make any kind of medical claim for
products that have not been licensed as medicines despite the fact
that there is a sound evidence basis for such claims. Part of the
reason for this is that no single body is responsible for ensuring
that product offered for sale actually are what they say they are.

For this reason the BVR (BeeVital Research) programme is targeted at
developing full medicines licenses for some key products. In the
meantime BVR have formulated a number of products for the health food
market based on their research. Consumers, when purchasing products
should look for those products produced by companies who can back up
their products by good manufacturing practice (pharmaceutical
standard manufacturing) and research.


References:
(1)Lavie, P. (1960). Annals Abeille, 3: 103-201

(2)Anti-Bacterial properties of propolis. Grange, J. M., Davey, R. W.
Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, 83: 160-1 (1990)

(3)Anti-microbial action of propolis and some of its components: The
effect on growth membrane potential and motility of bacteria.
Mirzoeva, O. K., Grishanin, r. n., Calder, p. c. microbial – res,
152: 239-246 (1997)

(4)A comparative multi-centre study of the efficacy of propolis,
acyclovir and placebo in the treatment of genital herpes (HSV).
Vynograd, N.; Vynograd, I.; Sosnowski, Z. Institute of
Epidemiology, Lvov State Medical University, Lvov, Ukraine.
Phytomedicine (2000), 7(1), 1-6. CODEN: PYTOEY ISSN: 0944-7113.

(5)Current lead natural products for the chemotherapy of human
immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection. De Clercq, Erik. Rega
Institute for Medical Research, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven,
Louvain, Belg. Medicinal Research Reviews (2000), 20(5), 323-
349. CODEN: MRREDD ISSN: 0198-6325

(6)Caffeic acid phenethyl ester inhibits T-cell activation by
targeting both nuclear factor of activated T-cells and NF-kB
transcription factors. Marquez, Nieves; Sancho, Rocio; Macho,
Antonio; Calzado, Marco A.; Fiebich, Bernd L.; Munoz, Eduardo.
Departamento de Biologia Celular, Fisiologia e Inmunologia,
Universidad de Cordoba, Facultad de Medicina, Cordoba, Spain.
Journal of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics (2004), 308
(3), 993-1001. CODEN: JPETAB ISSN: 0022-3565.

(7)Suppressive effects of propolis in rat adjuvant arthritis.
Park, Eun-Hee; Kahng, Ja-Hoon. College of Pharmacy, Sookmyung
Women's University, Seoul, S. Korea. Archives of Pharmacal
Research (1999), 22(6), 554-558. CODEN: APHRDQ ISSN: 0253-6269.

(8)Bulgarian propolis induces analgesic and anti-inflammatory effects
in mice and inhibits in vitro contraction of airway smooth
muscle. Paulino, Niraldo; Dantas, Andreia Pires; Bankova, Vassya;
Longhi, Daniela Taggliari; Scremin, Amarilis; Lisboa de Castro,
Solange; Calixto, Joao Batista. Grupo de Pesquisa e
Desenvolvimento de Biofarmacos (BIOFAR), Universidade do Sul de Santa
Catarina, Tubarao, Brazil. Journal of Pharmacological Sciences
(Tokyo, Japan) (2003), 93(3), 307-313. CODEN: JPSTGJ ISSN: 1347-
8613.

Author: James Fearnley

James Fearnley of BeeVital Research is one of the worlds leading
authorities on Propolis He has written extensively on the subject and
published a major review of all the current research up to 2001 - Bee
Propolis – Natural Healing form the Hive Souvenir Press.
HTTP://www.beevitalpropolis.com