Royal Jelly May Help Treat Depression and Anxiety

This research confirms what has been noted before of Royal Jelly's overall positive tonic effect ...

Antidepressant-Like Activity of 10-hydroxy-trans-2-decenoic acid, a Unique Unsaturated Fatty Acid of Royal Jelly, in Stress-Inducible Depression-Like Mouse Model
Evid Based Complement Alternat Med, 2012;2012:139140. Epub 2011 Jul 24

Royal jelly (RJ), which is fed to the queen honeybee, has a variety of biological activities towards various types of cells. For instance, RJ exhibits immunomodulatory properties [1–3] and inhibits the development of atopic dermatitis-like skin lesions [4]....


Symptoms of depression and anxiety appeared in mice after they had been subjected to a combination of forced swimming for 15 min followed by being kept in cages that were sequentially subjected to leaning, drenching, and rotation within 1-2 days for a total of 3 weeks. 

The animals were then evaluated by the tail-suspension test, elevated plus-maze test, and open-field test at 1 day after the end of stress exposure. Using these experimental systems, we found that 10-hydroxy-trans-2-decenoic acid (HDEA), an unsaturated fatty acid unique to royal jelly (RJ), protected against the depression and anxiety when intraperitoneally administered once a day for 3 weeks simultaneously with the stress loading. Intraperitoneally administered RJ, a rich source of HDEA, was also protective against the depression, but RJ given by the oral route was less effective...


 These results demonstrate that HDEA and RJ, a natural source of it, are effective in ameliorating the stress-inducible symptoms of depression and anxiety and suggest that they may become a promising tool as a new antidepressant.

Propolis Essential Oil Helps Decrease Anxiety

Propolis is a very rich resource of bioflavonoids, deserving much more research...

Therapeutic Effects of Propolis Essential Oil on Anxiety of Restraint Stress Mice
Hum Exp Toxicol, 2011 Jun 14

Propolis has a broad spectrum of biological activities; however, whether its essential oils have neuroprotective effects is unknown. 


In this study, we found that propolis essential oil (PEO) could significantly reverse the anxiety-like behavior of restraint-stressed mice, and has no effect on locomotor activity. Furthermore, PEO significantly decreased the plasma levels of cortisol (CORT), adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH) and malondialdehyde (MDA), whereas it increased the activity of superoxide dismutase (SOD) in restraint-stressed mice. 


These results strongly suggest that PEO has therapeutic effects on anxiety through antagonizing the hyperfunction of hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal (HPA) axis and improving the ability of antioxidation in brain tissue.

Honey Found to Help Relieve Anxiety

Honey soothes throats, anxiety and coughing spells!! (the list is actually much longer)....

Honey Helps Relieve Anxiety: 

"Modifications of neurobehavioral activities related to single episodes of consumption of different doses of bee honey were examined in rats under conditions of the hole-board (HB) test (to evaluate the level of anxiety) and open-field (OF) test (where the intensities of locomotion, rearing, and grooming were measured).


Animals of all subgroups had free access to normal saline, while rats of the three experimental subgroups consumed bee honey in the doses of 0.5, 1.0, and 2.0 g per 1 kg body mass (in the form of 10, 20, and 40% solutions, respectively). Among the doses tested, only higher ones induced considerable changes in the behavioral indices. The highest dose (2.0 g/kg) provided a more than twofold increase in the number of examined holes in the HB test; in the OF test, it also increased the numbers of crossed squares, rearings, and grooming episodes by 30, 37, and 164%, respectively.


Thus, our experiments demonstrated a rather significant ability of the natural product tested to relieve anxiety and intensify motor, research/orientational, and grooming aspects of behavior even upon single acts of consumption. Possible neurophysiological mechanisms underlying the behavioral modifications observed are discussed."