The scientific name of beeswax is Cera flava (yellow wax) or Cera alba (white, bleached wax). It is a product of biological origin, which is produced by special waxes of worker bees. This process begins in bees at the age of ten to twelve to eighteen or twenty days after the termination of royal jelly production. To form beeswax bees need flower pollen and nectar, perg and honey. The process of such biological production of wax is very complex and is possible only in healthy bees, in the body of which sufficient enzymes are necessary for this. After the production of wax in the glands, it is released through the holes of the so-called wax mirrors (about 1.5 mg of wax) and freezes into transparent white plates. Bees use wax as a building material for honeycombs. In the hexagonal cells of honeycomb honey is collected and eggs laid for the continuation of the offspring. Of course, the more young bees live in the hive, the more bees the bee family gets. Only one hundred forty grams of wax is needed to create one honeycomb.
It is easy to determine the creation time of honeycombs - if the color is white or has a light cream color, this is a recent design. In addition, new honeycombs consist of wax almost completely, and the old ones and yellowed by a quarter less, in honeycomb brown colors, a decrease in its content to 60% is found. But not only the amount of wax in the honeycombs determines their color. Also affects the admixture of plant pollen, and the way of processing the wax itself. But the most decisive factor for color is the propolisic resin, which contains a substance that is colored according to the properties of chrysin, a substance of yellow color.
Interestingly, beeswax does not lose its useful properties after its processing. But how do they get it from honeycombs? For the beginning remove ("pump out") honey. Then the honeycombs are squeezed, melted in hot water (to dissolve the remnants of honey and separate the mechanical impurities). After lowering the water temperature, the wax floats up and is removed from the surface. After melting, the wax is filtered into a mold. This wax is yellow. Under the influence of sunlight (or ultraviolet rays), it is bleached, because yellow pigments are destroyed. If medical use of the wax is not planned, it can be bleached with chemical oxidants.
Consider the chemical composition and properties of the wax. This is a complex mixture, consisting of about three hundred compounds of organic nature and minerals. Among them, esters of saturated fatty acids (palmitic, cerotic, myristic, etc.) and high-molecular monohydric alcohols occupy the main place. In beeswax, gentrikontan, unacid (saturated hydrocarbons), fatty acids (for example, melissinic, monatin, neocero), higher alcohols, lactones, carotenoids, vitamin A. were also identified. Antibacterial agents, coloring and bactericidal compounds and other components . Given the diversity of sources of raw materials for the production of beekeeping products in general, of course, the source of its production is reflected on the composition of beeswax.
In modern medical practice, wax is increasingly used for inflammatory diseases of the nose and its adnexal cavities, with bronchial asthma and periodontitis. Effectively internal application of wax in such an unpleasant and painful condition as spastic colitis. It is important here that the wax performs the function of "lubrication" and facilitates the course of the pathological process, relieving pain. However, beeswax in the body is not digested, but can adsorb various toxins and help with intoxication.
There are many effective recommendations for the external use of beeswax. After all, it is a plastic natural material with pronounced regenerative qualities. Therefore, it is used in dermatological pathologies, treatment of diseases of the mucous membranes (for example, the oral cavity). Even simple chewing of honeycomb honeycombs helps in similar situations. With obliterating endoarteritis, a special mastic of beeswax helps. Effective was beeswax and to help with the restoration of the skin on burns and wound surfaces (especially poorly healed). In warming compresses applied to the desired area of the body, the wax showed the result in joint diseases, inflammation of the female sexual sphere. For joints, ointments are also useful, in which the wax is combined with olive or linseed oil.
The use of wax in cosmetology, due to the presence of retinol, is very wide. This mask and cream with a regenerative effect. Cosmetic products are produced that have an anti-age effect.
For the pharmaceutical and cosmetic production, the plasticity of the wax is technologically very valuable, this makes it possible to obtain a different consistency. On its basis, you can get emulsion and cream versions of the desired product. They not only have resistance, but also have a good shelf life. And the ability of wax to dissolve various medicinal substances and slowly release them is used in suppositories, ointments, medical plasters.