What do we need to know about drone brood homogenate and what is known

In Polish folk customs, bees are surrounded by the nimbus of holiness, which is reflected in a series of proverbs and phrases in colloquial speech (Markiewicowa, 1992). It was believed that products derived from the beehive, resulting from the effort of insects are endowed with special healing and nutritive properties. As such, bee products have been used in natural medicine for centuries (Markiewicowa, 1992). Nowadays, these properties have been confirmed by systematic scientific assessment. The largest number of scientific reports are focused on the nutritive properties and therapeutic action of propolis, royal jelly, honey, bee venom and pollen. Less information can be found about another product of beekeeping which is drone brood. Drones are responsible for the fertilization of a queen bee, thereby prolonging bee species. In addition to reproduction, they do not perform any others important functions in the bee community, except draining food resources collected by worker bees. For this reason, the excess of the drone brood is removed from the hive by the beekeepers. Before the winter bees themselves banish the adult drones from the hive. The removal of drone brood has a function in the prevention and treatment of varroosis, bee parasitic disease caused by the Varroa destructor mites. Beekeepers and scientists have noticed that this parasite accumulates in wax cells in which young drones develop.

The purpose of this work was to assess the current state of knowledge on the nutritional and biological properties of the drone homogenate (DBH). Information about biological or pharmacological effects of DBH are limited and research results are published in very local scientific journals. The authors tried to gather available information of the chemical composition, methods of storing and preserving the brood, as well as on biological activity and application in nutrition and medicine. The collected facts prove that this product is wrongly regarded by majority of Western beekeepers as waste. Studies carried out on animal models show that the homogenate exhibits androgenic effect and led to improve animals productive capacity. DBH is able to stimulate the immune system (stimulating the production of antibodies by the spleen and the immune response of T lymphocytes) as well as reduction the parameters of oxidative stress and the risk of death due to cardiovascular episode (Bogdanov, 2012).

In searching for information on drone brood, generally available publishing databases such as Scopus, Google scholar, and PubMed were used. Search words were: "drone homogenate", drone brood", "bee brood", "drone larvae", "drone milk". Due to the number of publications available in English, information on the drone homogenate was also searched in Russian. Patent studies of agents containing drone homogenate were searched at http://patents.google.com.

This work gathers information on the chemical composition, methods of storage and preservation as well as the action of the biological drone homogenate. In addition, information on the effect of the drone homogenate on animal organisms and the use of homogenate in various disease entities in humans has been provided. Manuscript also contains information on the use of the drone homogenate as a dietary and food supplement. The critical discussion on available results was provided.

This paper presents the most important information on the use of drone brood in folk medicine. The studies carried out with the use of animals and humans have shown that the drone brood has an adjuvant effect that improves the efficiency of the organism. Due to its high content of amino acids and proteins, it is used as a tonic and adaptogenic agent. The presence of sex hormones in the homogenate allows its use as a potency raising agent and equalizing the hormonal system in people of both sexes. Based on the facts quoted above, it can be concluded that DBH is a promising nutritional product, an unjustly neglected source of valuable substances not only such as proteins, fatty acids but also vitamins, hormones and antioxidants.