Yahoo – AFP,
Isabelle Wesselingh, 10 April 2014
Bucharest (AFP) - Bee venom to combat multiple sclerosis, pollen for indigestion, honey to heal wounds -- the humble bee has been a key source of alternative medicines since ancient times, and Romania is working to keep the tradition of "apitherapy" alive.
A Romanian
bee keeper is seen checking hives near Bucharest, on
April 4, 2014 (AFP
Photo/Daniel Mihailescu)
|
Bucharest (AFP) - Bee venom to combat multiple sclerosis, pollen for indigestion, honey to heal wounds -- the humble bee has been a key source of alternative medicines since ancient times, and Romania is working to keep the tradition of "apitherapy" alive.
The
tradition goes back to ancient Greece when Hippocrates applied honey to treat
wounds, and the Romans saw pollen as "life-giving".
An
assistant checks the texture of bee
vemom based cream at the factory of the
Research and Development Institute of
Beekeeping, in Bucharest, on March 18,
2014 (AFP Photo/Daniel Mihailescu)
|
"The
hive is the oldest and healthiest natural pharmacy," said Cristina
Mateescu, director general of the Institute for Apicultural Research and
Development in Bucharest.
Today in
the wilderness of Romania's Carpathian mountains, honey bee products are still
a familiar part of traditional medicine.
"In my
village, my great-grandmother was a healer and used products from beehives. She
inspired me," Dr Mariana Stan told AFP.
Having
spent years as a conventional doctor, Stan now practises in Bucharest as a
"apitherapist" -- using bee products "which give slower but
longer lasting and more profound results".
In a
country still infused with folk culture, several families continue to use
propolis against sore throats, as well as honey and pollen to boost the immune
system.
Apitherapy pioneer
Every town
in Romania has its "plafar" -- natural pharmacies selling products
made from plants, honey, beeswax and propolis.
"Romania
is a pioneer of apitherapy, which it recognised very early as a component of
scientific medicine," said US professor Theodor Charbuliez, head of the
Apimondia Commission of Apitherapy, a group that brings together thousands of
practitioners from around the world.
Modules on
apitherapy have started to work their way into more conventional medical
classes and extracts from propolis developed by the Apicultural institute into
recognised medicines.
Doina
Postolachi, 34, receives bee venom
treatment at a medical center in Bucharest,
on March 28, 2014 (AFP Photo/Daniel
Mihailescu)
|
A new range
even seeks to treat cats and dogs with bee-related products.
Bucharest
also boasts an Apitherapy medical centre, the world's first, which opened in
1984.
Scepticism
remains among the regular medical community in the absence of scientific
studies about the effects of bee venom, but many users are full of praise and
welcome the cheap costs and environmentally friendly approach.
Doina
Postolachi comes twice a week to the medical centre to receive injections of
bee venom, or "apitoxin".
The
34-year-old poet says the injections have allowed her to "rediscover
hope" in her fight against multiple sclerosis.
"For a
year, I could no longer walk or get into my bath. My feet were stuck to the
ground. But today, the venom treatment has given me back strength in my legs. I
walk, I can take baths," she said.
She said
she has never wanted any regular pharmaceutical treatments "which come
with numerous side effects".
Bees do
wonders
There has
been mounting interest across the world in apitherapy.
In 2013,
Washington University in the US city of St Louis published a study on the
efficacy of milittine, a toxin contained in bee venom, in countering the AIDS
virus.
In France,
thousands of patients have benefited from bandages treated with honey at the
abdominal surgery department of Limoges hospital.
Various
kinds of honey, seen at a honey
and beekeeping products fair in Bucharest,
April 4, 2014 (AFP Photo/Daniel
Mihailescu)
|
Part of the
appeal rests with the natural and organic image of bee products.
"In
Romania, we have the chance to maintain an unspoiled nature," said
Cornelia Dostetan, a member of the National Apitherapy Society.
Under
Communism, poverty meant that pesticides were rarely used and the country has
never shifted to large-scale monoculture forms of agriculture. The result is
that Romania retains a great diversity of flora, said Dostetan.
Certified
organic, the Romanian brand Apiland, a specialist in raw pollen, has launched
its products in France and Italy.
According
to the last agricultural census in 2010, Romania counted 42,000 beekeepers and
more than 1.3 million colonies of bees.
Postolachi
says she looks on the bees with "immense gratitude".
"These
miniscule beings do wonders."
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