Fighting against the second wave of COVID-19: Can honeybee products help protect against the pandemic?

Yahya Al Naggar; John P Giesy; Mohamed M Abdel-Daim; Mohammad Javed Ansari; Saad N Al-Kahtani; Galal Yahya

doi:10.1016/j.sjbs.2020.12.031

Fighting against the second wave of COVID-19: Can honeybee products help protect against the pandemic?

Saudi J Biol Sci. 2021 Mar;28(3):1519-1527. doi: 10.1016/j.sjbs.2020.12.031. Epub 2020 Dec 22.

Authors

Yahya Al Naggar^{1

2}, John P Giesy³, Mohamed M Abdel-Daim^{4

5}, Mohammad Javed Ansari⁶, Saad N Al-Kahtani⁷, Galal Yahya^{8

9}

Affiliations

¹ Zoology Department, Faculty of Science, Tanta University, 31527 Tanta, Egypt.
² General Zoology, Institute for Biology, Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, Hoher weg 8, 06120 Halle (Saale), Germany.
³ Department of Veterinary Biomedical Sciences and Toxicology Centre, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon SKS7N 5B3, Canada.
⁴ Department of Zoology, College of Science, King Saud University, P.O. Box 2455, Riyadh 15 11451, Saudi Arabia.
⁵ Pharmacology Department, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Suez Canal University, Ismailia 41522, Egypt.
⁶ Department of Botany, Hindu College Moradabad (Mahatma Jyotiba Phule Rohilkhand University Bareilly), 244001, India.
⁷ Arid Land Agriculture Department, College of Agricultural Sciences & Foods, King Faisal University, P.O. Box 400, Al-Ahsa 31982, Saudi Arabia.
⁸ Microbiology and Immunology Department, Faculty of Pharmacy, Zagazig University, 44519 Al Sharqia, Egypt.
⁹ Department of Molecular Genetics, Faculty of Biology, Technical University of Kaiserslautern, Paul-Ehrlich Str. 24, Kaiserslautern 67663, Germany.

Abstract

Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) has infected people in 210 nations and has been declared a pandemic on March 12, 2020 by the World Health Organization (WHO). In the absence of effective treatment and/or vaccines for COVID-19, natural products of known therapeutic and antiviral activity could offer an inexpensive, effective option for managing the disease. Benefits of products of honey bees such as honey, propolis, and bee venom, against various types of diseases have been observed. Honey bees products are well known for their nutritional and medicinal values, they have been employed for ages for various therapeutic purposes. In this review, promising effects of various bee products against the emerging pandemic COVID-19 are discussed. Products of honey bees that contain mixtures of potentially active chemicals, possess unique properties that might help to protect, fight, and alleviate symptoms of COVID-19 infection.

Keywords: Alternative medicine; Antiviral effect; COVID-19; Honey; Natural products.

Publication types

Review