Health Benefits and Uses of Beeswax in Medicine

Jingjing Qian; Ge Chen; Yang Bei; Zexiu Qi; Danila Cianciosi; Yasmany Armas Diaz; Manuela Cassotta; José M. Álvarez-Suárez; Maurizio Battino; Francesca Giampieri

Resumen:

Beeswax (BW) is the substance that forms the structure of a honeycomb, made by bees to store honey. Compared with honey and propolis, beeswax as a by-product possesses several favorable therapeutic properties and is of great interest to the scientific community. In this chapter, the various health benefits of beeswax and its applications are systematically introduced, including mainly the protection of skin disease, wound healing, oxidative damage, antimicrobial activities, and other health applications, with the aim to make more common the use of this by-product for human health. Beeswax, due to its beneficial components and special structural properties, could even assist in preventing and treating some types of cancers or some metabolic diseases, such as nonalcoholic fatty liver disease. Therefore, this chapter aims to update the major scientific works that have highlighted the various health benefits exerted by beeswax in different types of pathological conditions.