A Review On Bee Venom And Its Medical Uses

Abstract

One of the most important insects in the world is Apis mellifera, which shows a critical role in different environmental
conditions. For thousands of years, diverse honeybee products have been used to cure human ailments in many
civilizations, and their curative effects have been mentioned in several holy books. The worker bees and queen
produce an apitoxin, which is a cytotoxic and colorless liquid of hemotoxic bitter. The bee venom or apitoxin contains
different sugars, volatile pheromones, phospholipids, enzymes, peptides, amino acids, minerals, proteins, and other
bioactive compounds. The present review aims to collect more information about the history of honeybee venom and
its medicinal uses. The apitoxin or bee venom is medicinally utilized to control different human diseases such as
cancer, fibrotic disease, liver fibrosis, Parkinson disease, Alzheimer disease, arthritis, HIV, and Lyme disease. The first
report on the application of bee venom to treat human ailments was published in 1888, when European clinical
research was conducted to determine the efficacy of honeybee venom in treating rheumatic disorders. According to
several studies published in different scientific journals, honeybee venom has been applied to control different human
diseases for several centuries. Thus, it can be decided that bee venom can be a potential future biomedicine to control
different diseases such as cancer.