NutraCast: Food Scientist combines science and nature to create bee products

27-May-2022 - Last updated on 03-Nov-2022 at 14:55 GMT

Asli Samanci, PhD, had researched bees for years, but it wasn’t until she had her first child that she became intimately involved with the products’ healing properties.

Samanci explained that her son was experiencing recurrent infections and was highly resistant to antibiotics. He was prescribed antibiotics to cure his condition, but then he started having adverse reactions to them. He was eventually diagnosed with an autoimmune disease called Henoch-Schöenlein Vasculitis, an acute immunoglobulin A (IgA)–mediated disorder characterized by a generalized vasculitis involving the small vessels of the skin, the gastrointestinal (GI) tract, the kidneys, the joints, and, rarely, the lungs and the central nervous system (CNS).

While struggling to find a solution, Samanci recalled a life changing moment in her doctor’s office.

“The doctor who diagnosed the case asked me, ‘why don't you give your son propolis and royal jelly?’ I said that because many of the products out there on the market, they are not real and pure because I'm an expert for determination of authenticity of bee products. I know that most of the raw materials are from China and they are not real. When I analyze them in the lab, they are not real and pure. That's why I cannot trust and I cannot give to my child. And then he said, ‘if that is the case, why don't you produce yourself for your son?’ –This question made me an entrepreneur.”

Samanci said the propolis and royal jelly helped her son make a full recovery within 6 months.

Today Samanci, along with her husband, Taylan Samanci, an agricultural engineer, and her academic advisor, Prof. Dilek Boyacioglu, PhD, co-founded Bee & You.

At the core of the company is the research. Bee & You boasts an R&D lab with about 30 employees who are chemists, food scientists, pharmacologists, pharmacists and dietitians.

“There’s really a huge library about the health benefits of propolis and its antiviral, antifungal effects, and wound healing effects. But I am doing all these studies is because I want to see and I want to show that my product has the same effects as well. I know it because of my son, but when you prove it clinically and scientifically that makes sense–otherwise, it's just a memory.”

To hear more about the formulation process, Samanci’s published research and how her son is doing today, listen to the NutraCast.

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