Search

Royal jelly (RJ) is a natural product that is fed to bee queens during their entire life, and it contributes to their growth and development, fertility, and long lifespan. Although it is known that these unique effects of RJ, it has not been evaluated fed diet studies in fish until now. The study was carried out to determine the influence of RJ diets with different rates (0.0; 0.1; 0.4; 1.6 and 6.4 %) on expressions of growth (GH-I, IGF-I) and immune system (TGF-β) hormones of zebrafish (Danio rerio). Growth parameters was also studied and found to be higher in D4 group containing 1.6 % additives compared with other groups. RJ dietary supplementation showed significantly up-regulated in GH-1 gene expression in the liver tissues of fish fed D5 diet respect to the control group. Conversely, expression level was down-regulated in kidney tissues of group D4 compared with the control group (p < 0.05). IGF-1 gene expression noticeably increased in the muscle tissues of fish fed the D5 diet containing 6.4 % RJ compared to the control group. The greatest decrease was found in the muscle tissues of group D3 diet (p < 0.05). Although among the diet groups the highest amount of TGF-β expression was found in the muscle tissue of fish that were fed the D4 diet. It was seen that the mRNA level amounts obtained in all applications were below the level of the control group. These results indicate that the high-dose RJ included in the feed positively influenced the growth hormones of the zebrafish at transcriptomic level. To sum up, this study highlights the importance that 1.6 % or 6.4 % RJ included in the diet of zebrafish positively influenced their growth performance and growth hormone gene expression and may be considered a potential to be sustainable alternative for growth promoter in aquaculture practice.

Yeasts isolated from patients with superficial mycoses were tested against propolis samples collected from different regions and honeybee races. The minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) values obtained using the agar dilution methods were compared to the diameters of growth inhibition zones by using the disk diffusion method. The results showed that Candida albicans, C. glabrata, Trichosporon spp., and Rhodotorula sp. were susceptible to low concentrations of propolis, the latter showing a higher susceptibility. Relative to the other propolis tested, the propolis sample collected by Apis mellifera caucasica possessed the highest antifungal activity against all of the superficial mycoses. In contrast, the propolis samples collected by A.m. carnica and A.m. anatolica were the least active samples. Also, the propolis sample from the Adana region is more active than samples from other regions. An increase of MIC values was accompanied by a decrease of growth inhibition zone diameters. Keywords:: propolis, Apis mellifera L., antifungal activity, superficial mycoses