Development of cream formulations enriched with Honey bee (Apis mellifera L.) venom and bee products

Bee venom is a substance that is produced in the venom glands of worker bees. A worker bee produces approximately 0.3 mg of poison during its lifetime. Bee venom, which the European Commission defines as a firming and skin-protecting component in the cosmetics industry, contains pharmacologically significant active ingredients. Although bee venom is a commonly used substance in apitherapy, it is challenging to come across bee venom creams. Since there is an increasing demand for natural cosmetics, creams with natural ingredients were produced in this study by making cream formulations; the active ingredient is bee venom. Many studies have proven that bee venom has many effects such as antibacterial, anti-inflammatory, nervous system regulator, pain relief, and antiaging. In this study, face, body, foot, hand, and articular cream formulations and prototypes with the mentioned effects of bee venom were developed, and stability, allergy, dermatological, and cytotoxicity tests were performed for each of them. The bee venom, royal jelly, and propolis used in creams were produced directly by contacting the beekeepers with a contract beekeeping model. Within the scope of the study, firstly, the preparation of the venom and the preparation of the infrastructure for the analysis, the development, and validation of the analysis methods were carried out. When the contents of 6 different bee venoms obtained from beekeepers were evaluated with HPLC-UV, the selected bee venom, sample 4, was used to produce creams. Then, the necessary natural ingredients for production were provided, and nine different formulations were prepared for each type of cream containing different concentrations of bee venom. Prototype products have been created for five types of cream, based on the formulations selected from voluntary tests and sensory tests. The prototype creams of the selected formulas were tested for stability at room temperature and 40℃. The creams that were found suitable based on the stability test results were subjected to various tests, including antioxidant, allergy, dermatological, and cytotoxicity tests carried out on volunteers. The data generated on five prototype creams showed the appropriateness of the developed formulations. This study produced prototype creams by developing face, body, foot, hand, and joint pain creams containing bee venom.