Royal jelly is a creamy, white substance secreted by young nurse honeybees from their Hypopharyngeal glands. It has a faintly pungent odor and a fruity, bitter taste, probably due to its high acid content. It is a complex biological substance used as the sole food of the queen bee. All larva receive this rich royal jelly or ‘bee milk’ for the first three days of their lives. Afterwards they are nourished on a diet of honey, pollen and water. Both worker bees and queen bees can develop from any fertilised egg. The determining factor that produces a queen bee is the diet given during their development, growing 40-60% larger and living 40 times longer than the other bees.

Royal jelly is very rich in nutrients and multi-vitamins. it contains all of the B-complex vitamins including a high concentration of pantothenic acids (B5) and pyridoxine (B6) and is the only natural source of pure Acetylcholine, Royal jelly also contains vitamins A, C, D and E, proteins, 18 amino acids, enzymes, minerals and many others. The substances considered very important are :10 Hydroxy-2- Decenoic acid (Barker 1959, Kushima 1985, Hiranramdes 1988). Gamma globulin, which is known to confer increased resistance to virus and bacteria: nucleic acids like DNA and RNA. About 4% of royal jelly cannot yet be identified.