Old healing method rediscovered How does hive air therapy work?

German researchers are investigating the chemical basis of hive air therapy

Honey and propolis have been known for their healing properties for millennia. But bees provide even more healthy for humans. Beehive air should also help against various ailments. German researchers have now investigated the chemical basis of this therapy.

Bees provide beneficial substances

Bees supply various substances that have long been used to treat patients. Healing with home remedies Honey is widely used. For example, it is used in warm milk as a home remedy for coughing. Even the poison of the bee is attributed a positive effect. In traditional Chinese medicine, bee sting therapy is used as a remedy for various diseases such as arthritis. And even from the air from beehives to a beneficial effect. German researchers have now investigated the chemical basis of this therapy.

The air from the hive should have a therapeutic potential for bronchitis and asthma patients and also help against other diseases. German researchers have now investigated the chemical basis of this therapy. (Image: Heinz Waldukat / fotolia.com)

Hive air is said to help with many ailments

The therapeutic potential of air from the hive for asthma and bronchitis patients has been widely reported in recent years.

The beehive air should also have a positive effect on migraine, susceptibility to infection, atopic dermatitis, depression and other complaints.

So far, however, only experience reports of individual patients before, even information on the chemical composition of the hive air were not yet available, the Dresden University of Technology writes in a statement.

Therefore, the stick air was now the focus of a scientific study by researchers at the TU Dresden: Professor Karl Speer, DLC Kristin Recklies and graduate Franziska Kuhn from the Faculty of Chemistry and Food Chemistry.

Season is from May to September

In hive air therapy, the patient sitting next to the hive, either outdoors or in a small wooden house, inhales the approximately 35 degrees warm, very humid air of the hive, which the bees with their wing beats circulate.

Breathing takes place via an inhalation mask with a connected hose, whereby the air is transported by a fan from the floor. Thanks to a built-in filter, neither bees nor pollen can get into the hose.

Season is from May to September with an outside temperature of at least 18 degrees. "It is still unclear to what extent the actual therapy or the environment is good for the patient," explains Prof. Speer.

"How much of a positive influence the calm and balance on the land, where the therapy takes place, or the calm inhalation - and which contribution the ingredients of the hive air contribute to the therapy itself, requires further investigation."

Insects were not disturbed

In their study, the chemists at the TU Dresden took air samples from the hives and analyzed their composition with gas chromatography mass spectrometry:

This makes it possible to separate a mixture consisting of many components into individual substances and also to assign compounds of a defined structure.

In each case a beehive in Dresden and one in the forest botanical garden in Tharandt were prepared so that a foreign entry of flavoring substances could be excluded by the materials used.

Therefore, odorless Teflon and copper were used for hoses and housings of the meters. "It must be measured what is really contained in the hive, the pure, natural components," emphasizes Prof. Speer.

"Beekeepers Tino Lorz and Lisa Becker from the Imkerverein Dresden have given us a great deal of support with their experience so that we can reliably measure the air without disturbing the bees." As control samples, the scientists used the ambient air around the hive.

Over 50 different ingredients identified

The removal of the beehive air from the cane was a difficulty: How to draw the air evenly, in what quantities and, above all, how does the extracted air come completely into the analyzer?

Since no studies on hive air were available, the air sampling and transfer first had to be optimized in laborious preparatory work.

Prof. Speer has been working very successfully on the authentication of varietal honey since the mid-1980s, but beehive air is also a new topic for him, with which he has only been working for more than a year.

Nevertheless, the expert and his team were able to identify more than 50 different ingredients despite the small amount of substances in the hive air.

In addition, they were able - by comparative studies - to show that the compounds in the beehive air predominantly from the bee resin ("propolis") and the beeswax, while the honey embedded in the honeycomb, as expected, only a small contribution to the stick air provides.

Further studies will now be used to quantify the compounds accurately and also compare different devices used in air-borne therapy, which are designed differently, with respect to the air supplied to the patient. (Ad)