This FAQ provides information about propolis generally, and in particular about Bio 30 propolis from New Zealand.

Q: Is propolis the same around the world?

A: No. The chemical components of propolis vary remarkably from country to country, and even between different locations within each country. The variability of propolis is due to the plants available for bees to gather resin. Initially, this variability was a serious obstacle to the standardisation of propolis and its acceptance into the mainstream of healthcare. However, studies based on propolis from particular locations (such as Professor Hiroshi Maruta’s research on Bio 30 propolis from New Zealand) have led to findings based on the characteristics of particular propolis.

Q: How do bees know what to gather to make propolis?

A: Scientists know that the plants honey bees gather resin from for propolis are not chosen randomly. However, how the bees identify the plants is not known. Whatever the process, bees appear to have an ability to find sources of plant substances to convert to propolis that provide efficient protection of their hives from infection. Processed into a form suitable for human consumption, this propolis provides similar protection for us.

Q: What is so different about Bio 30 compared with other propolis?

A: Scientists have found propolis varies considerably in its composition depending on the plants available in the location where bees gather its components. Bio 30 propolis from New Zealand is certified to contain a minimum of 30 mg/g of bioflavonoids, the active compounds responsible for the biological activity in propolis. Bio 30 propolis is extremely high in important bioflavonoids, which make up 70% of the flavonoid content, compared to less than 10% in propolis from other countries.

Scientists continue to use Bio 30 propolis in research because it contains high levels of the cancer-suppressing compound CAPE (caffeic acid phenethyl ester), along with other synergistic anti-cancer ingredients, in a water-soluble form, which can be readibly taken orally.

A: Apitherapy is the use of bee products for human health benefits. Bee products include propolis, bee pollen and royal jelly, amongst others. The use of bee products in apitherapy is one of the oldest recorded prescriptions, dating at least to the time of Hippocrates. Historically, bee products have been used both internally (as an anti-bacterial, to treat ulcers, sore throats etc.) and externally (applied to wounds, skin infections, burns etc.) in many cultures.

Q. You have described Bio 30 Propolis is the most effective tumour suppressing therapeutic you have found, and the most cost-effective at around a dollar a day. What other options have you looked at?

A. We have worked with other natural products which are already available on the market and are inexpensive. The first was a Chinese Pepper which we found blocked particular cancer pathways. We tested it and it works on cancer in general.
But it has a bitter taste and also requires an ethanol extraction process to make a dry powder. We had to somehow add something sweet like honey to make it palatable.
We contacted Manuka Health New Zealand to discuss a possible new product which could be easily taken by a cancer patient. We were going to call it Honey Pepper.
We also knew that propolis is generally good for cancer and we tested several different propolis samples. We found the New Zealand propolis called Bio 30 was the most effective and the Kiwis were particularly interested in working with us.
We have tested green propolis from Brazil and a few others. The reason we focus on the New Zealand propolis is that it has the highest content of an anti-cancer ingredient called CAPE (caffeic acid phenethyl ester) compared to any other sample.
CAPE has been known for two decades to block a pathway responsible for more than 70% of all human cancers. That’s why we’re interested particularly in New Zealand propolis, particularly Bio 30, and compared to other propolis samples so far it is the best.
That’s why we have stuck with Bio 30 and have dropped the idea of Honey Pepper.

Q. You have mentioned an old saying that beekeepers seldom get cancer.

A. They seem to be more resistant than ordinary people. We don’t know exactly what the cause is, but it is most likely propolis. Among bee products, only propolis is known to contain anti-cancer compounds, except for manuka honey which has some anti-cancer ingredients.

Q. Is a dollar a day cheap for an anti-cancer treatment?

A. Yes. Certainly cheaper than a cup of good coffee or tea.
And an inexpensive anti-cancer drug is beneficial for the type of tumour we are concerned with, that’s called NF (or neurofibromatosis). This tumour develops in the very early stages of life, unlike other cancers which develop later in life. The lifelong diseases which are associated with cancer are killers. It is a genetic disease, so even when you treat tumours in a particular period, they can develop again in other spots.
So an NF patient can take this Bio 30 propolis as a therapeutic life-long.
Two things are important for those patients. It has to be relatively inexpensive so it does not cause any financial problems. And because lifelong treatment is required it has to be very safe.
Propolis is certainly known to be very safe and has no serious side-effects.

Q. Where does your anti-cancer research into CAPE and Bio 30 Propolis go from here? How much longer will your patient trial continue?

A. We started a trial of Bio 30 about two years ago with a dozen NF patients. Now we have about 150 people, mainly NF but also patients with several other cancers — pancreatic cancer, melanoma and glioma, which are caused by the same kind of enzyme, a kinase called PAK.
So far, patients have reported no further tumour growth and no new tumours developing.
In several cases, particularly with NF2, glioma and pancreatic cancer, tumours have completely disappeared or significantly shrunk.
Obviously it works, especially in these types of cancer cases.
Compared to a single drug of the type usually developed by pharmaceutical companies, Bio 30 Propolis is a mixture of different anti-cancer compounds. This has a great advantage over a single treatment because we find these compounds work synergistically.
The other thing is that most single drugs lead to drug resistance. But with a mixture which targets different pathways, there is less possibility drug resistance will develop. That’s a great advantage and I think a kind of wisdom is to use a combination of different compounds to kill a single disease.

Q. What is the progress of the present trial? I understand most patients are finding no further growth and in some cases, shrinkage of their tumours?

A. Yes. In terms of pancreatic cancer, tumours will disappear.
We have one patient who’s melanoma had metastasised in the lungs, but even this shrank almost completely. We are very happy about it. I don’t know anything that works in this way.
We don’t have any sort of a termination date but we will keep the trail as long as our patients want.
At a certain stage we will have more systematic surveys and then we can show the data to cancer clinicians, whether they are interested to do a standard clinical trial.

Q. Has it worked for all of them?

A. In most cases, the tumour has stabilised. In some cases the tumour disappears or shrinks, but in certain cases, propolis doesn’t seem to work.
Those cases are mostly in overweight people. Because all overweight people have extra fat, that really feeds the tumours.
It’s well known that anticancer drugs don’t work on obese people. They have to not only take the drug but also they have to do exercise, do a so-called 30% calorie reduction, to reduce their weight.

Q. Is that the only category of patient for whom it doesn’t work?

A. Yes, so far.

Q. How does CAPE work in blocking the formation of tumours?

A. The major anti-cancer compound is called CAPE, a caffeic acid derivative.
The CAPE content of Bio 30 Propolis is the highest among the propolis samples around the world that we tested.
CAPE blocks an enzyme (actually a kinase) called PAK1 which activates this type of cancer. There is a huge family of PAK types. We refer to it just as PAK.
Around 30% of cancers are known to be resistant to anti-PAK drugs, because those types of cancer depend on another enzymes. So there are some cancers which are resistant to Bio 30 — most of the leukaemias, lung cancer, also colon cancer.
PAK is responsible for about 70% of cancers, including major cancers like breast cancer and prostrate cancer. Also several formidable cancers like pancreatic cancer and melanoma, for which there is no effective therapeutic available on the market.
So we are targeting those tumours.

Q. Why is it that Bio 30 Propolis has this higher level of CAPE, compared with propolis from other countries?

A. No one knows.

Q. Would you be involved in a clinical trial?

A. I’m not a clinician. I believe that Bio 30 works on certain tumours. Personally I don’t want to do a double-blind clinical trail using placebos because I believe that giving this type of patient a placebo is inhumane.
Scientifically, you have to do those things to get approval for synthesised drugs. But a healthcare supplement doesn’t need approval. So I’m not going to push for clinical trials. If there are people who want to do it, I might help by just giving all the information.

Q. A clinical trial would be a 10 year process?

A. Yes. And only 10% are successful – 90% will fail the trial phase. So it costs time and money.
I think the advantage of Bio 30 Propolis is that it is becoming very popular as a cancer treatment generally.
In Japan, Brazilian green Propolis is very popular. Some clinicians actually take propolis.
Bio 30 will not penetrate in Japan because the green propolis is already there. But in the United States and Europe, few people know about green propolis.
So 60% of Bio 30 Propolis customers for cancer treatment are in the United States and also in Europe there is a potentially a good market for New Zealand propolis in general.

Q. There’s nothing to stop people taking Bio 30 Propolis because they have previously anyway, but does it have to be a registered medicine?

A. I think so, in any country. Interestingly, in Germany propolis is actually a registered medicine. As far as I know, in all other countries propolis has never been registered as a drug.

Q. You have written about the reason you looked at natural therapeutics and their advantage over synthesised drugs and the lengthy process of clinical trials required to obtain regulatory approval. Meanwhile, patients wouldn’t get the benefit of it for more than 10 years. As you’ve just related, synthesising CAPE into a single drug would have also have disadvantages compared with a product which also contains other compounds which make it more effective. Is that why you’re sticking with Bio 30 Propolis?

A. I think so. Firstly, the patient is looking for a cure urgently – that’s the first thing.
In the end, after 10 or 20 years, a more potent chemical compound may become available.
But you can expect those chemical products to be very expensive. There is a drug called FK228 in development as a treatment for pancreatic cancer. It is potent but it is too expensive for patients to buy as a life-long treatment.
New Zealand Bio 30 Propolis has an advantage because of the cost and also safety. A potent drug may not be free of side-effects. It causes fatigue and I’ve never heard of propolis causing fatigue.
These drugs are obviously not perfect, and very expensive. Even in the long-term I think Bio 30 will probably have the greatest advantage.

Q. What proportion of medicines are developed purely synthetically, as opposed to coming from animals and plants and things like bee products?

A. Actually, quite a few medicines come from natural sources. A typical one, Aspirin, comes from willow bark. In the end it is a chemical compound but comes from the bark of the willow, a natural thing. Penicillin is another, from the soil bacteria. If we look at medicines in general, most people would be surprised how many come from nature.

Q. You have written about other benefits of Bio 30 Propolis, apart from its anti-cancer ingredient, like being anti-viral and a possible treatment for Swine Flu. I see that Swine Flu strain is developing a resistance to TamiFlu. Does Bio 30 Propolis have any potential here?

A. Viruses often become drug-resistant. Propolis is a multi-compound treatment. Propolis in general is known to be anti-viral as well as anti-bacterial. So in theory, it should work and never produce drug resistance.

Q. You originally got into cancer research after a close friend died of pancreatic cancer. You’ve studied this area with the aim of finding a cure. Thirty years later you’re doing that. You must be very pleased with your work.

A. Yes. Firstly, we found the enzyme from the cell amoeba which links to the cancer, purely basic science. After 30 years, the work somehow seems to benefit many cancer patients and also has potential for several other cancers/diseases like Alzheimer’s and arthritis.

Q. Do you intend to go into those areas of research or are you expecting other people to take that up?

A. I’m retiring so I’m not sure how I will extend those trials or tests but certainly I’m happy to tell people the potential of this propolis.
Initially we were working on particular types of NF tumours. Certainly in theory it should work on several known cancers and diseases like Alzheimer’s, AIDS, arthritis, as they use the same pathway. I think we’d like to somehow expand our potential.

Q. So there’s lots of other areas of research that could be expanded, based on propolis?

A. Yes. My expertise is cancer but I can discuss with other people who have expertise in different fields and promote the potential.

Q. Other scientists and medical researchers might find some areas of interest to pursue?

A. Yes. The standard method to screen an anti-cancer drug is using mice on which we graft the human cancer, but these so-called immune-deficient mice are pretty expensive. Testing using mice takes at least a month, in some cases several months.
Recently we developed an inexpensive and quick drug screening system using a small worm called a nematode, about 1mm long. This worm has the same enzyme PAK which causes this type of cancer. When you insert GFP (green fluorescent protein) from jellyfish and a special heat shock gene and treat them with heat, a green florescence shows under the microscope.

Q. So you can test potential anti-cancer compounds and the promising ones turn green?

A. Yes. Generally speaking this gene is normally is activated by PAK. So when you treat these tiny animals overnight with CAPE or propolis which blocks PAK, then shortly after the heat shock, this worm brightly glows green.
In a few days we can see whether a compound or natural product has broken the PAK or not. We can screen in a very short time and it costs almost nothing.
To convince a clinical doctor to take one as an anti-cancer drug, we have to do an animal experiment using mice. But we will just pick a few on a short-list so we don’t have to test a million drugs using mice, saving a whole lot of money.

Q. And time. That’s a significant development that’s come out of your research which can be applied elsewhere, looking for anti-cancer drugs.

A. It is not patented, so anybody can use it. It’s not published but I’m just writing a review including the details, so it will be available for anybody who’s interested.