Royal jelly is a complex mixture of flower nectar, sugars, proteins, vitamins, and bee glandular secretions made by workers bees primarily for developing and maintaining the queen bee. It is purported to have many actions, including beneficial effects for people with anorexia , fatigue, headaches, failure to thrive in children, inadequate lactation, asthma , and debility from a variety of causes. However, these claims remain either weakly substantiated or unsubstantiated. Royal jelly is antibacterial in test tube studies. 5 Royal jelly has been shown in animal studies to help prevent the cholesterol-elevating effect of nicotine 6 and to lower blood cholesterol levels .
Worker bees make royal jelly, which is fed to the queen bee.
It is available as a supplement. Because royal jelly is not an essential bodily constituent, deficiencies do not occur. People susceptible to allergies may develop sensitivity to royal jelly. Occasionally, royal jelly can provoke a severe allergic reaction in a susceptible individual. While royal jelly contains very little chemical or bacterial contamination, some concern has been raised over the lack of standardized testing for environmental contaminants in bee products.