What is Apilarnil?

What is Apilarnil?

Despite my many years around bee-lovers and keepers, it was only last week that I heard of the mysterious substance, apilarnil. From what I could tell, this was some kind of bee secretion, but while royal jelly is popular for its claimed medicinal purposes, apilarnil is not something I had ever come across.

Royal jelly is a honey bee secretion that comes from glands in the hypopharynx of worker nurse bees. It is fed to all the larvae in a hive, and is highly nutritious. It is found in large quantities in queen cells, and is perceived to morph regular worker larvae into queen larvae.It is therefore not surprising that the highly nutritious royal jelly– that contains a protein known specifically as Royalactin– has become a component of an alternative medicine cabinet.

Apilarnil, however, is made from the contents found in the cells of drone larvae, and could therefore be seen as the male equivalent to royal jelly! Etymologically, apilarnil is derived from “api” meaning “bee”, “lar” for “larva”, and “nil” as an abbreviated form of its discoverer’s name, Nicholas Iliesiu. Inside the drone cell is the jelly, pollen, bee brood, water and honey found in the cell of the male larvae; however, while 3% of the contents of the cell are common larva food, 97% is the body of the drone larvae that houses over 10,000,000 sperm. On the seventh day of the larval development, it reaches its full potential, achieving the highest number of sexual cells, and therefore has the maximum amount of energy. Chemically, the protein-rich composition is high in vitamins minerals; for example, apilarnil contains haemolymph, which is much richer in nutrients than the human blood. It also contains hormones, particularly steroid hormones.

While this product was launched on the market almost 40 years ago in 1980, it hasn’t received the same popularity as royal jelly, despite its phenomenal-sounding health benefits. Available most commonly in a powder form or mixed in to honey in a paste, it needs to be kept frozen to ensure the substance remains active. According to some apitherapists, apilarnil can assist a wide array of ailments in men, women and children. In men, this substance is seen to help organic and psychic sterility, male menopause and libido problems. In women, it is seen to aid premenstrual syndrome, hormonal

problems and stress-related body pain. More generally, apilarnil is seen to to help respiratory viruses, enuresis (involuntary urination) and infertility. Now that I am familiar with apilarnil, I’ll keep researching to see what else I can find out about this mysterious bee product.