Effect of fresh royal jelly ingestion on glycemic response in patients with type 2 diabetes

Abstract EN

Background : Type 2 diabetes is the fourth major public health problem worldwide.

Royal Jelly (RJ) insulin-like activity and blood glucose modulating properties have been reported in animal and healthy volunteers.

Objectives : This study aimed to investigate the effect of a single dose of fresh RJ as a complementary therapy on glycemic response in patients with type 2 diabetes.

Patients and Methods: In this randomized clinical trial, 40 patients with type 2 diabetes were assigned into the RJ (n = 20) and placebo (n = 20) groups and received either 10 g fresh RJ or placebo after overnight fasting.

Serum glucose, insulin and C-peptide concentrations were determined at 0, 60, 120 minutes after the intervention.

Independent t-tests and repeated measures ANOVA were used to analyze data.

Results : The mean serum glucose levels were significantly decreased in RJ and placebo groups; however, mean serum level was different but not statistically.

(P = 0.77).

One hour after RJ ingestion the mean serum insulin concentrations were increased and after 2 hours it was decreased insignificantly (P = 0.54, P = 0.20).

The mean C-peptide concentrations were significantly increased after 1 and 2 hours of RJ ingestion; however, in the placebo group we observed a slight but insignificant reduction at the time of 1 and 2 hours in the mean C-peptide serum levels (P = 0.40).

Moreover, there was no significant difference in none of the glycemic control parameters between both studied groups (P > 0.05).

Conclusions : It seems that RJ does not appear to have significant immediate effects on glycemic factors in patients with type 2 diabetes.

However, further studies with larger sample sizes and different doses of RJ are needed to achieve more precise results.