Chemical Composition of Royal Jelly

New Insights into the Biological and Pharmaceutical Properties of Royal Jelly

“…So far, MRJPs (1-9) are well-described with molecular mass 49-87 kDa, which are encoded by nine different genes [23,30]. MRJP-1 is a weak acidic glycoprotein, accounting for 48% of water-soluble RJ proteins and the secondary structure consists of 9.6% α-helices, 38.3% β-sheets, and 20% β-turns [6,31]. Particularly, MRJP-1 occurs as a monomer (mono MRJP-1) or as an oligomer known as apisin by polymerization with apisimin [31].…”

“…MRJP-3 is rich with arginine and lysine while the prominent amino acids in MRJP-5 is methionine and arginine. Furthermore, leucine is the major amino acid in MRJP- (6)(7)(8) and isoleucine is the rich one in MRJP-9 [41,42]. The MRJPs provide nutritive components such as essential amino acids to RJ.…”

“…The major components of RJ are (60-70% w/w) water, (9-18% w/w) proteins, (7-18% w/w) sugars, and (3-8% w/w) lipids [3,4]. RJ also contains minor components, such as minerals (Fe, Na, Ca, K, Zn, Mg, Mn, and Cu), amino acids (eight essential amino acids Val, Leu, Ile, Thr, Met, Phe, Lys, and Trp), vitamins (A, B complex, C, and E), enzymes, hormones, polyphenols, nucleotides, and minor heterocyclic compounds [3,5,6]. RJ is an active research domain because it is essential for larval development and queen reproduction in honeybee colonies through the metabolism of sugars, lipids, and proteins [7,8].…”

Deciphering the Raman spectrum of royal jelly. Fabrication of Ag‐polymer embedded royal jelly nanoparticles manifesting SERS effect

“…Thus, visible laser excitation coupled to conventional micro‐Raman set‐up is absorbed by the molecules that are dominantly present in biological systems (proteins, carbohydrates, and lipids) because the energy for electronic transitions of some functional groups coincides and lies within the energy range of the visible wavelengths. Fresh royal jelly (RJ) is one of the most chemically complex nourishments comprising diverse molecular species: mostly water (60–70%), but also proteins (9–18%), carbohydrates (10–16%), and small amounts of lipids, minerals, vitamins, and free amino acids . After freeze‐drying, the protein and carbohydrate content in RJ increases to more than two third of the mass, also associated with a significant reduction of the water content (<5%) .…”

“…Fresh royal jelly (RJ) is one of the most chemically complex nourishments comprising diverse molecular species: mostly water (60-70%), but also proteins (9-18%), carbohydrates (10-16%), and small amounts of lipids, minerals, vitamins, and free amino acids. [3][4][5][6][7] After freeze-drying, the protein and carbohydrate content in RJ increases to more than two third of the mass, also associated with a significant reduction of the water content (<5%). [3,8] The chemical complexity of the system stands as the major culprit for the scarcity of representative RJ Raman spectra that might help to monitor and fingerprint the encountered species.…”