Apitherapy is a treatment technique that uses products that come from beehives. The virtues of honey, pollen, propolis and royal jelly have been known about and standardised since ancient Egyptian times.
Modern apitherapy is now a branch of complementary medicine, and plays an important role in some countries.
Since 2008, the year of its foundation, the AFA (Association francophone d’apithérapie or Francophone Apitherapy Association) has been helping to assess the benefits of these products and techniques objectively, as well as promoting and recognising their therapeutic effectiveness.
We would like to thank the Union nationale des Apiculteurs Français (the National Union of French Beekeepers, UNAF) for letting us use the text from the special edition dedicated to Apitherapy of their review, Abeilles et Fleurs for this website (published in January 2012).