Bees are full of treasures

Bees are one of the most precious feeding insects for humans, and their interactions with humans have a long history. Bees have made great contributions to mankind by pollinating crops and fruit trees, increasing yields, improving seeds and rejuvenating varieties, promoting the development of agriculture. The products of bees themselves, such as honey, royal jelly, beeswax and bee venom, are produced every year. In addition to meeting domestic market demand, they are also exported abroad, increasing the country's foreign exchange earnings.

Bees are good friends of human beings; every time the plants bloom, they shuttle back and forth between flowers and hives from morning to night, pollinating flowers and making honey for people; but they themselves take very little. Some people have calculated that to produce 1 kilogram of honey, bees need to collect 2 million to 5 million flowers and fly 450,000 kilometers back and forth, which is equivalent to 11 times around the earth's equator, while the bees themselves only consume 185 grams of honey. Since they go out to collect pollen during the day and do the work of swallowing and making honey in the nest, dehydration is usually performed at night. At this time, the entire bee colony flaps its wings to smooth the air flow and reduce the humidity in the nest box, finally reducing the moisture content of the honey to about 25%. The little bee is busy during the day and has to work overtime at night. How hard it is! After the honey chamber is filled with honey, the worker bees secrete wax, cover the opening of the honey chamber, and store it. Only then is the honey-making process completed. "Bees make nectar from flowers and leave it sweet in the world." This is people's praise and gratitude to bees. In addition to making honey, bees can also produce royal jelly, beeswax, propolis, bee venom and other products, which not only directly meet the needs of people's lives, but also provide raw materials for the pharmaceutical industry and other industries. Bees pollinate crops when collecting nectar, which can increase yields and make them more valuable. Some people have made statistics: the use of bees for pollination can increase the production of rapeseed by 30-50%, cotton production by 5-12%, fruit trees by 55%, and sunflower production by 30-50%. In addition, multipotent bees are also known as "insect miners". Why are they given this reputation? Because the rare metal tantalum can be extracted from the honey produced by bees collecting clover pollen. Tantalum is an essential material for the electronic industry and the manufacture of synthetic fibers, but its content in the earth's crust is very small in nature, and mineral deposits containing tantalum are difficult to find. Later, it was discovered that clover and alfalfa could absorb and store this rare metal, so people burned the harvested clover into ashes to extract tantalum. However, the cost of this method is too high, the operation is complicated, and the yield is too low. Only 200 grams of tantalum can be extracted from 40 hectares of clover. Extracting tantalum from clover nectar is relatively easy and low-cost. The amount of honey required to extract 200 grams of tantalum is 700 kilograms. At the same time, the taste of the refined honey remains unchanged and is still edible. This is why bees were awarded the honorary title of "Insect Miners".

Honey is widely used in medicine, food industry and in people's daily life at home. As early as 2200 years ago, there were records about honey in the "Shen Nong's Materia Medica": honey can relieve pain and detoxify, eliminate many diseases, and can harmonize with hundreds of medicines. Taking it for a long time can strengthen one's mind and lighten one's body, and prevent aging and prolonging life." Judging from this written record, people at that time had already realized the medicinal value and nourishing and strengthening effects of honey. "Compendium of Materia Medica" records that honey is used as medicine to "clear away heat and detoxify; tonify the middle (meaning to replenish the deficiency of middle qi, such as anal prolapse, uterine ptosis, gastroptosis and other diseases), and moisturize (such as dry stool, chapped skin, dry mouth, etc.) , cough-relieving and other functions. Many Chinese medicine pills also contain honey. Why is honey regarded as a panacea for health and longevity? Mainly because honey is rich in nutrients. According to modern scientific analysis, honey contains 40.5% glucose, 34.48% fructose, 17.7% moisture, 1.9% sucrose, 1.51% dextrin, 0.81% ash, and other components (protein, Tannins, waxes, gums, volatile oils, enzymes, salts and various acids, etc.) 3.1%. Because honey contains a variety of nutrients and is easily absorbed by the gastrointestinal tract, it can promote metabolism in the human body and maintain strong physiological functions.

Royal jelly is a food with extremely high nutritional value. It is a white milk jelly secreted by the throat glands of "childhood" worker bees and is exclusively for the enjoyment of the queen bee. It is rich in protein, multiple vitamins and more than 20 kinds of amino acids, among which royal jelly acid is not found in any other food. From the "baby" period when the queen bee was born in the queen's nest until she dies of old age, the worker bees provide her with royal jelly throughout her life. Therefore, during the peak egg-laying period, the queen bee can lay 1,500 to 2,000 eggs per day, among which It has the longest lifespan in the bee colony and can live for five years. It is the only longevity person in the bee kingdom.

Royal jelly is the main anti-aging health food for people. It is rich in nutrients and amino acids, proteins, steroids, active peptides, brain hormones, juvenile hormones and peeling hormones needed by the human body, so it has a special tonic function for the human body. , and can regulate the physiological functions of the human body, helping to treat neurosis, rheumatoid arthritis, hepatitis, cough, hypertension and other diseases.

Bee venom is extracted from the venom gland secretions of worker bees. The worker bees in the honey bee are hatched from the fertilized eggs laid by the queen bee. The small larvae are initially fed by the worker bees with royal jelly, and then feed on a mixture of nectar, pollen and water. Therefore, when they develop into adults, they become sterile. Female bee - worker bee. Worker bees do not have ovaries but have venom sacs. The ovipositor has been specialized into a stinging needle and is connected to the venom gland. The stinging needle is usually hidden in the body at the end of the abdomen. When encountering an enemy, it can extend it and inject venom into the enemy's body. . When the bee completes the sting and flies away, the sting and the venom sac are separated from the bee body and bleed into the victim's skin, and the bee cannot withstand such limb loss and dies.

Bee venom contains several polypeptide substances and is an effective drug for treating rheumatoid arthritis, neuritis, and hypertension. A recent study by the American Apitherapy Society reported that bee venom is effective in treating rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis, depression, chronic fatigue, shingles, skin cancer and other diseases. Bee venom has a blocking effect on ganglia. Its analgesic index is higher than that of antipyrine. Its analgesic and anti-inflammatory effect is 70 times that of indomethacin. It has good curative effect on neurological diseases and rheumatoid arthritis. Before bee venom was produced, people placed bees on the affected area of the patient to sting them and inject bee venom to achieve therapeutic purposes. It is said that beekeepers take their bee colonies and camp outdoors in windy and rainy weather in search of honey-source plants. However, almost no one suffers from rheumatoid arthritis. This may be related to the fact that they are stung by bees.

Beeswax is formed by the absorption and decomposition of honey juice in the body of worker bees. It is then secreted through the wax plate secretory glands at the end of the abdomen. Beehives are made of beeswax. To produce 1 kilogram of beeswax, worker bees need to consume 20 kilograms of honey, which shows how expensive beeswax production is. Beeswax is widely used. It is the main raw material for making cream, floor wax, crayons, carbon paper, etc.

animal tags： bee honey insect