Honey bee venom (apitoxin, apis mellifera venom) is a colorless, acidic liquid and contains pharmacologically important constituents. The important constituents present in bee venom are melittin, apamin, hyaluronidase, phospholipase, and histamine. Melittin is considered to be the major constituent of bee venom. The venom is produced in the abdomen of worker bees from a mixture of acidic and basic secretions. After drying, it is a white powder and can be used in pharmaceutical applications and beauty products.

Bee Venom can be collected from the bees using a specialist piece of kit that doe not hurt the bees. Usually when a bee stings you it leaves the stinger in your skin and therefore dies, however, in this case the bee is encouraged to sting a sheet of glass and does not loose it’s stinger and continues to live.

We will attempt to extract some bee venom from the hives and report back at the blog.