Royal jelly is a viscous secretion produced by worker honeybees and fed to the queen bee throughout her life, a complex mixture of proteins, free amino acids, sugars, B complex vitamins, and a fatty acid unique to royal jelly called 10 hydroxy 2 decenoic acid.
In laboratory studies using UVB irradiated human dermal fibroblasts, royal jelly and its signature fatty acid increased production of new collagen and a key signaling protein that drives fibroblast collagen synthesis, suggesting its photoaging protective effect works mainly by boosting new collagen production rather than blocking collagen breakdown.
This collagen stimulating research is an in vitro cell culture study rather than a human clinical trial, and most other supportive royal jelly research comes from animal wound healing models or oral, ingested use rather than topical human application.
Royal Jelly References
Royal jelly protects against ultraviolet B induced photoaging in human skin fibroblasts via enhancing collagen production, Journal of Medicinal Food, 2011
Royal jelly a promising therapeutic intervention and functional food supplement, a systematic review, Heliyon, 2024
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