Humans have always had a true admiration for the work of bees, and their social organization fascinates for the dedication and investment they show in their community.

Beekeeping also symbolizes patience and demonstrates an equally remarkable commitment. It offers access to exceptional natural products from this buzzing microcosm that is the beehive, such as the famous royal jelly.

The history of royal jelly [1,2]

The history of royal jelly can be learned through its discovery but also through that of beekeeping. The consumption of bee products would have started in the Neolithic (6000 to 2200 BC) with the harvest of honey from wild nests. It was around 2000 BC that Man is said to have created beekeeping, the oldest traces of which have been found in Egypt. The activity would then have spread through civilizations: in Central America with the Mayans, as well as in Ancient Rome. Among the products of the hive, honey represents the oldest nutritional discovery and its medicinal, antibacterial action in particular, has made it a very popular remedy, whether across the world, in Egypt or in China, or across the eras, from Antiquity to the present day, including medieval times and more recently in recent decades marked by episodes of war.

Royal jelly, meanwhile, would have been discovered more recently, although early writings mention its consumption as far back as Ancient Greece through the shredding of honeycombs. It was in 1672 that the German naturalist Swammerdam identified a kind of "white porridge" which would serve, like honey, as food for bees. In 1734, Réaumur brought to light that this substance was produced by so-called “worker” bees. Then it was in 1788 that it acquired its name of "royal jelly" thanks to the Swiss naturalist François Huber, because of the power of this famous "porridge" to turn larvae into queens. Finally, in the mid-1800s, the American pastor and inventor in beekeeping, Langstroth (he notably invented a beehive model), analyzed royal jelly and developed his business at the end of the 19th century.

Royal jelly, food for the hive [1]

The only food for future queens and hive larvae, royal jelly is also called “bee milk” for its white color, its thick and viscous texture, and for its nutritional richness.

Before making the royal jelly, the bees in the swarm must first build the alveoli (or cells) of the hive: royal alveoli (larger), on the one hand, for the larvae that become queen bees, and standard size alveoli, on the other hand, for other larvae in the colony that are required to become “workers”. Royal jelly is secreted by worker bees (Apis mellifera) also known as “nurses”, by means of their hypopharyngeal glands (at the level of the head). These bees fulfill their role of nurses only between their 5th and 6th day and their 15th day of existence. While the worker larvae of the swarm are fed royal jelly only during their first 3 days of existence, the future queens and queen are fed on it throughout their lives. The queen will live 2 to 5 years while a worker bee has a life expectancy of only 1 to 3 months.

Royal jelly, the beekeeper's treasure [1]

Naturally, the most royal jelly is found in the royal cells where future queens are raised, the equivalent of 6 days of food versus 3 for future workers. The egg is then in the larval stage and bathed in royal jelly. While the making of royal jelly is above all a natural process, its yield can be greatly increased with the careful intervention of the beekeeper.

To optimize the natural production of royal jelly, it follows a very specific method:

• First, it increases the capacity of the hive by installing additional artificial cells.
• Then, by isolating the bees in a compartment of the hive that the queen does not have access to, he also isolates their production of royal jelly. Thus, in the absence of the queen's pheromones and feeling orphaned, the bees dedicate themselves to feeding the larvae with the aim of raising a future queen. The beekeeper then carries out grafting, a rapid but also particularly meticulous process: he places a freshly hatched larva in an artificial royal socket.
• Finally, the last step, the lifting or harvesting of the royal jelly carried out manually in several steps:

- The scaling: or the elimination of the wax covering the cell,

- Delarvage: that is to say the delicate removal of the larva from the socket,

- Extraction: the collection of pure royal jelly by suction and filtration before being placed directly in the cold.

This meticulous work requires a lot of time and attention, and the widespread craze for royal jelly assumes a correlated increase in production. But at what cost ? Several months (from April to July depending on the location in France) are necessary for a colony to produce between 700 and 800 g of royal jelly. But this yield varies from one hive to another (it can be higher or lower) and the work of the beekeeper is also significant: it is estimated that the establishment of the production and the harvest of royal jelly (from the artificial alveoli of the larvae to the final harvest) require about 23 hours of work. On the other hand, this estimate does not take into account the time necessary for the regular care and maintenance of the hives (travel, rounds for reserves, winter preparation, veterinary care, etc.).

French royal jelly

The general public's demand for this substance with exceptional benefits intensified considerably in the middle of the 20th century. Royal jelly then became a part of many products and quickly the yield of conventional harvests via swarming could no longer meet this increase in demand. Thus, techniques have emerged to improve production yields. In France, however, the number of royal jelly producers is on the decline, even as competition from Asia is developing and becoming more and more aggressive.

In 2016, FranceAgriMer published interesting data on the beekeeping sector, and in particular on royal jelly [3]. The observation: the annual French production of royal jelly is estimated at 2 tonnes, while the average consumption of the French is estimated at 175 tonnes! And to answer this, most of the volumes consumed are imported from China.

But in France, beekeepers are getting organized! With the creation, in 1995, of the Group of Producers of Royal Jelly (GPGR), the brand Gelée Royale Française® [4] was created and allows to label the quality approach of beekeepers. Its rigorous quality charter guarantees:

• A pure French production,
• Respect for bees and the environment,
• A fresh royal jelly (with refrigeration after harvest),
• Pure royal jelly (without any transformation),
• Rigorous and controlled traceability.

The interest of the nutritional profile of royal jelly

Royal jelly has many traditional uses and its health effects continue to fascinate the scientific community [2,5].

The value of royal jelly is based on its composition and nutritional profile. If these characteristics vary according to seasonality, the place of harvest, or even the weather, it is however always composed of water, lipids, proteins, carbohydrates and micronutrients (vitamins and minerals). Fresh royal jelly is estimated to consist on average of:

• Water: 65-70%
• Carbohydrates (glucose, fructose): approx. 14%
• Proteins: 13% including specific proteins (“major royal jelly proteins” or MRJP)
• Fat: approx. 4%
• Vitamins: especially group B
• Mineral salts and trace elements: copper, calcium, iron, sulfur, silicon, potassium, phosphorus

Royal jelly is therefore rich in proteins, and 80% of them are proteins called “major royal jelly proteins” (MRJP). Within lipids, we find a unique fatty acid: 10-hydroxy-trans-2-decenoic acid (10-HDA) [5,6]. Recent compilation works on the biological and pharmacological properties of royal jelly [7] show that MRJP and 10-DHA are among the main bioactive compounds of interest of royal jelly exerting effects on immunity, as well as bacterial and inflammatory activities.

The Nutri & Co choice: organic and French royal jelly

At Nutri & Co, we naturally chose to select:

• A royal jelly with interesting 10-HDA (> 1.4%) and protein (14%) contents.
• A short circuit organic French royal jelly (from the Puy-de-Dôme department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region). As mentioned earlier, China has taken a huge share of the royal jelly market by importing frozen form, so it seemed essential to us to favor a French royal jelly and from a short circuit.
• A pot format that allows packaging directly carried out by the producer and requiring little handling, and above all without any processing or additives.
• Royal jelly certified GRF® and from Organic Farming (AB). By complying with the GRF quality charter and the AB label, the bees in these hives are exclusively fed as naturally as possible thanks to honey and foraging activity. Conversely, imported royal jellies are often, on the one hand, derived from artificial feeding (which increases production yield), but are also most often frozen, which can potentially alter their nutritional quality.

Références

1. Babin, M. La Gelée Royale, de Son Origine à Sa Valorisation Pharmaceutique, Université Angers, 2015.
2. Fratini, F.; Cilia, G.; Mancini, S.; Felicioli, A. Royal Jelly: An Ancient Remedy with Remarkable Antibacterial Properties. Microbiol. Res. 2016, 192, 130–141, doi:10.1016/j.micres.2016.06.007.
3. France AgriMer, F. apiculture LE MARCHÉ DE LA GELÉE ROYALE EN FRANCE - SYNTHESE; 2016; p. 4;.
4. GRF LA GELÉE ROYALE FRANÇAISE DE QUALITÉ, PRODUITE PRÈS DE CHEZ VOUS Available online: https://www.geleeroyale-info.fr/.
5. Khazaei, M.; Ansarian, A.; Ghanbari, E. New Findings on Biological Actions and Clinical Applications of Royal Jelly: A Review. J. Diet. Suppl. 2018, 15, 757–775, doi:10.1080/19390211.2017.1363843.
6. Ramadan, M.F.; Al-Ghamdi, A. Bioactive Compounds and Health-Promoting Properties of Royal Jelly: A Review. J. Funct. Foods 2012, 4, 39–52, doi:10.1016/j.jff.2011.12.007.
7. Ahmad, S.; Campos, M.G.; Fratini, F.; Altaye, S.Z.; Li, J. New Insights into the Biological and Pharmaceutical Properties of Royal Jelly. Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2020, 21, 382, doi:10.3390/ijms21020382.

Our promise of transparency also involves the publication of quality analyzes:

• Microbiological analysis, heavy metals, nutritional profile