Natural products from the beehive such as honey, propolis, bee pollen, bee bread, royal jelly, beeswax and bee venom have been used for their health benefits in folk medicine since ancient times. Nowadays, these products receive considerable interest as nutraceuticals, cosmeceuticals and alternative medicines. The latter includes the use of propolis in oral healthcare and of bee venom and honey in the management of rheumatoid arthritis and wound healing, respectively.
A variety of bioactive molecules have been characterized from bee products. For example, honey is known to contain the antibacterial methylglyoxal as well as immunomodulatory proteins, and phenolics with anti-oxidant, anti-inflammatory and anticancer activity. Immunomodulatory proteins are also found in royal jelly along with anti-oxidant and antimicrobial peptides, and hydroxy-decenoic acids with antimicrobial, anti-in?ammatory, neuromodulatory, immunomodulatory and anti-aging properties. Propolis has anti-oxidant and antimicrobial phenolics, antimicrobial terpenes, and caffeic acid derivatives with antiviral, anticancer and anti-inflammatory activity. Bee venom peptides have anti-atherosclerotic, antimicrobial, anticancer and antidegenerative properties while its phospholipase A2 enzyme exhibits neuroprotective activity.
Among the studies reported to date on bioactive molecules from bee products, few have sought to unravel the mechanisms of action and targets of such compounds. A core question, which remains unanswered, is the specificity and relevance of some of the activities reported. Additionally, many studies have focused on investigating extracts from bee products for already well-established activities. The aim of this Research Topic is to advance our understanding in the field of bioactive bee products and molecules thereof by focusing on studies that seek to discover and fully characterize new drug leads from bee products.
Scope of manuscripts and information for Authors
In this Research Topic we welcome Original Research and Review articles, among other article types, that will increase our knowledge of natural products from the beehive in the following areas of research on beehive products;
• Pharmacological studies that focus on discovering new drug leads
• Identification of the modes of action/targets of active constituents at the molecular level
• Identification of previously unreported biological properties
• Critical reviews on the contribution of bee products to drug discovery research
Contributions reporting the following will not be considered;
• Pharmacological activity of bee products of unclear origin
• Pharmacological activity of extracts with no information on their chemical profiles
• In vitro studies using non-pharmacological models (e.g. biochemical anti-oxidant assays)
• Studies reporting well-known activity (e.g. anti-oxidant phenolics)
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All the manuscripts submitted to this project will be peer-reviewed and need to fully comply with the
Four Pillars of Best Practice in Ethnopharmacology (you can freely download the full version
here).
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