Pharmacological Potentials of Royal Jelly in Dentistry: A Review

“Royal Jelly” is a viscous material which is secreted by the cephalic gland of the “worker bee.” This is the key component of the “queen bee’s” diet, rendering it with longer life span compared to worker bees.“Royal Jelly” possess various pharmacological properties. These includes antioxidant, neurotropic, anti-inflammatory, immunomodulatory and antibiotic, anti-aging, antihypertensive properties. This article summarizes biological properties, composition, criteria of quality evaluation of “Royal Jelly”and published studies on the efficacy of “Royal Jelly” as a “wound healing agent” , as a component of mouth wash used in treatment of oral mucositis, periodontal diseases, as a storage media and as a pulp capping agent.“Royal Jelly” can emerge as a viable alternative to conventional synthetic agents, which may avoid usual drawbacks of synthetic medicaments.

A new termite species (Isoptera: Termitidae: Termitinae: Amitermes) and first record of a Subterranean Termite from the Coastal Desert of South America

At about one hundred species (Scheffrahn & Su 1987), Amitermes, is the second largest genus after Microcerotermes in the subfamily Termitinae. This cosmopolitan genus is found in a wide variety of habitats from rainforests e.g., Amitermes excellens (Silvestri) from Guyana (Emerson 1925) and Amitermes dentatus (Haviland) from Sumatra (Gathorne-Hardy et al. 2001) to deserts, e.g. Amitermes emersoni Light from Coachella, California (Light 1930) and Amitermes desertorum Desneux from Egypt (Sands 1992). Only eight species of Amitermes are known from the Neotropics and only five occur across mainland South America. Soldiers of Amitermes are characterized by a bulbous head capsule and sickle-shaped mandibles, each with a single tooth of various shapes on their inner margins. Soldiers of all species have a large cephalic gland opening to a circular fontanelle on the frons. When confronted by an agonist, the soldier emits a terpenoid secretion which oozes onto setae around and below the fontanelle (Scheffrahn et al. 1983). Herein, is described a new Amitermes from Peru and the first record of a subterranean termite along the Pacific coastal desert of South America.

Endogenous glycoconjugates are not associated with filter feeding in mosquito larvae (Diptera: Culicidae)

Histochemical techniques were used to determine the origin and possible function of glycoconjugates in the head of larval mosquitoes. Late instars of Aedes aegypti (L.), Aedes implicatus Vockeroth, Culex territans Walker, and Anopheles earlei Vargas were stained with Alcian Blue at pH 0.5, 2.5, and 3.2, aldehyde fuchsin, and periodic acid – Schiff's reagent. Lectins derived from Triticum vulgaris, Bandeiraea simplicifolia, Sophora japonica, Pisum sativum (PSA), and Ulex europaeus were used to determine the composition of the glycoconjugates present in the head of A. aegypti. Additionally, larvae were fed inert Dayglo® particles and stained as above to determine the origin of glycoconjugates observed in the gut. Examination showed that carboxylated and weakly and strongly sulphated glycoconjugates are secreted from what are described here as dorsal and ventral cephalic glands. With the exception of PSA, none of the lectins bound to the glands or their secretion product. Globular and elongate cells in the ventral cephalic gland bound PSA, indicating the presence of α-D-mannose. The secretion product is not used to enhance food capture or handling. Instead, it is hypothesized that these glycoconjugates aid in formation of mouthpart structures or facilitate ecdysis.