Royal Jelly is a substance of complex chemical structure produced by the young nurse bees as larva food. Although it is not quite as well known as bee Pollen, royal jelly equals pollen in its salutary effects.
The young nurse bees make royal jelly, it is a secretion from glands on the tops of their heads. For 2-3 days, royal jelly is the only food given to all young larvae in their maturation process, while for the queen larvae, it is the specific food for their whole life period. During the 3 days in which the worker bee larvae are fed on royal jelly, they reach the maximum development; their weight multiplies about 250 times. The queen (fed only on royal jelly for her entire life) reaches maturity 5 days earlier than the worker bees; and, when she is fully grown, her weight is double that of the working bee. The span of the worker bee's life is about 35-40 days; while the queen lives 5-6 years and is extremely prolific. She is fertilized once, and from that moment on can lay as many as three thousand eggs a day during the season. As incredible as this may seem, she can lay that many eggs for five years. Any creature that has that amount of energy and vitality has to be respected!
This rich concentrated food is not just useful for the bees. It contains remarkable amounts of proteins, lipids, glucides, vitamins, hormones, enzymes, mineral substances, and specific vital factors that act as biocatalysts in cell regeneration processes within the human body.
Although some of the elements found in royal jelly are in microgram quantities, they still can act supremely with co-enzymes as catalysts or can act synergistically. (That is, the elements' action combined is greater than the sum of their actions taken separately.) Royal jelly is rich in protein, vitamins B-1, B-2, B-6, C, E, niacin, pantothenic acid, biotin, inositol and folic acid. In fact, it contains seventeen times as much pantothenic acid as that found in dry pollen.