We have seen that propolis fulfils a comprehensive and important role in maintaining the health of the bee colony. We have also seen in our panoramic sketch of the history of its traditional use by man as a medicine that it has had a wide range of powerful and medicinal uses. It’s time now to ask how it works. What …

For thousands of years natural medicine—herbs and plants to treat disease—was the only medicine available to humans. As we have seen, medicine then was as much allied to a religious worldview as modern drug-based medicine is to scientific thinking. However, from the middle of the eighteenth century onwards little …

Propolis has been used by man for a variety of medicinal and non-medicinal purposes since ancient times. It is tempting to think that before modern science the ancients were somehow forced to use natural substances as a kind of last resort, because they knew no better. The truth was very different and as we review the …

In between acting as teacher to Alexander the Great and writing his great works on ethics and philosophy, Aristotle (384–322 bc) found time to write the first detailed natural scientific study of animals. This work included substantial and detailed references to the working of the honeybee. Aristotle’s great goal…

Propolis is composed principally of resin and wax. Its colour can vary enormously. In temperate climates it ranges from a light yellow or brown to a dark brown colour, often with a reddish hue. Propolis produced in tropical climates can range from the light brown-green of Brazilian propolis to the black and dark red of…