An ancient Egyptian legend tells that when the god Ra, the god of sun, cried, his tears turned into bees. And the bees built the hives and went from flower to flower. And that’s how honey was born, from Ra's tears. For the Egyptians therefore honey and bees were considered sacred, a gift from a god, and several papyri also describe the uses of honey and other products connected to it such as beeswax and, precisely, royal jelly, for applications in the medical field and cosmetic. And today, we draw inspiration from this ancient wisdom to talk about the beauty properties of royal jelly.
Royal jelly, more than just a cosmetic, a real beauty elixir
Royal jelly is produced by worker bees and used as nourishment for larvae and queen bees. Many scientific studies analyzed the action of royal jelly, in fact only being able to demonstrate what the Egyptians, a few millennia before, had already guessed. Royal jelly contains carbohydrates, proteins, fatty acids, vitamins and minerals, useful to improve skin health. Not only that, royal jelly is anti-tumor, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, antibacterial and healing and therefore able to accelerate the healing of wounds and ulcers (Pasupulte et al). In fact, a scientific research reports the effectiveness of applications of lotions containing 5% royal jelly on ulcers caused by a condition called diabetic foot, a complication of diabetes. In particular, these applications allowed the healing of almost all the wounds analyzed, 7 out of 8, and the one that was not healed improved significantly by reducing the size (Siavash et al, J Res Med Sci, 2011). In addition to this, other studies have observed that royal jelly is able to protect the skin from UV ray-damages and aging, as well as stimulating collagen production (Park et al, J Med Food, 2012 - Yamauchi et al, Int J Otolaryngol, 2014). Moreover, it has been shown that topical applications of creams containing up to 1% of royal jelly have been able to mitigate chronic skin itching with the same effectiveness as betamethasone, an anti-inflammatory drug generally used to treat eczema and itching (Yamaura et al, Pharmacogn Mag, 2013).
Royal jelly, applications
Hence, royal jelly can help regenerate the skin, counteracts wrinkles and signs of tiredness but can also be useful in case of acne and dull and irritated skin, in short, a real healthy treatment for all skin types. Mix 2 tablespoons of yogurt, 1 teaspoon of argan oil and half a teaspoon of royal jelly, mix and apply on well cleansed face and neck. Leave on for 15 to 20 minutes, then rinse. As an alternative to topical application, royal jelly can also be taken by mouth thus helping from the inside to counteract the aging of the tissues, in fact the studies on the increase in collagen production thanks to royal jelly also refer to its orally intake.
