Читать книгу Honey For Dummies - Howland Blackiston - Страница 46

Beekeepers curse propolis because it sticks to their hands, hive tools, and the frames inside the hive while they are inspecting their colonies. For this reason, it is often called “bee glue,” and it leaves a permanent stain on everything it comes into contact with. A type of tree resin similar to myrrh and frankincense, propolis is produced when honey bees gather the sticky sap from conifer trees like spruce, pine, or fir. They mix the sap with their own enzymes and beeswax to produce one of the most powerful antibacterial, antifungal and antiviral substances in the natural world.

Propolis resembles sticky taffy when it’s warm, and it shatters like glass when it’s cold. Beekeepers scrape chunks of propolis from the woodenware inside their hives and save it to make tinctures, dissolving it with grain alcohol. Personal care items like topical salves, throat sprays, lozenges, and toothpaste found in most health-food stores tout the benefits of propolis. If you have infected gums, a toothache, or a sore throat, try sucking on a small piece of propolis; it will relieve pain pretty quickly by numbing the area. Because propolis contains essential minerals, iron, calcium, aluminum, manganese, and all the vitamins known to man except vitamin K, it is known to stimulate the body’s own immune system.

The name propolis was dubbed by Aristotle when the ancient Greeks observed bees calking the crevasses in their hives to fortify against bacteria in preparation for the oncoming winter. Propolis translates to pro (before) and polis (city) referring to a bee colony’s ability to defend its own city. It is a well-known fact that the ancient Egyptians used propolis and honey to embalm the mummies, and for this reason they have survived for thousands of years. Stradivarius polished his violins with beeswax and propolis, which acted as a preservative for the wood. Today, beekeepers often mix tinctures of propolis with paint to preserve the woodenware of their beehives.