Research hotspots and trends on bee venom therapy: A bibliometric and visualization analysis from 2004 to 2024

Bee venom therapy (BVT) is widely used to treat various diseases. This study aimed to analyze the current status, research hotspots, and trends to guide future investigations.

Literature related to BVT from 2004 to 2024 was retrieved from the Web of Science core collection database. By using CiteSpace 6.2.R7 and VOSviewer 1.6.20, bibliometric and visual analyses were carried out for different categories, such as countries/regions, institutions, authors, references, and keywords.

A total of 493 studies were included. This field is mainly led by Asian countries, South Korea, Kyung Hee University, and Roh Dae-Hyun, who were the most prolific country, institution, and author, respectively. "Therapeutic application of anti-arthritis, pain-releasing, and anticancer effects of bee venom and its constituent compounds" is the most co-cited reference. The analgesic mechanism of BVT, and its application in arthritis and pain management are the current research hotspots. The treatment of Parkinson disease and cancer with bee venom will become the focus of future research.

Through bibliometric research, we investigated the overall situation in BVT over the past 2 decades, clarifying the current status, hotspots, and frontier trends in this field. To promote the advancement of BVT and overcome future bottlenecks, it is important for international institutions and research teams to strengthen collaborative exchanges and carry out high-quality, large-sample, multi-center clinical research to further explore standardized treatment protocols and mechanisms of action in BVT, driving its multidimensional development.