No one likes wrinkles, but as the body’s largest organ, the skin ages just like the rest. Wrinkles happen and everyone is always trying to find some cure to turn back the clock. Honeybee venom has been used in skin products due to its anti-inflammatory, analgesic, and sometimes anti-microbial properties.
This study, headed up by the Department of Agricultural Biology in South Korea, was conducted to see the effects of bee venom on humans as it claims to be the first clinical study to determine the effects of bee venom-containing cosmetics on facial wrinkles in human skin.
The study explains the process, protocols and techniques the researchers used to see if bee venom is effective on humans. The facial serum they concocted out of the bee venom was at a concentration of .006 percent.
All the factors studied (total wrinkle count, area, and depth) showed self-identified improvement over the 12-week course of the study, with only statistically significant results achieved after the twelfth week.
The researchers say that long-term treatment with bee venom-containing cosmetics could be safe because the irritation potential of bee venom is negligible.
The mechanism by which bee venom serum exerts its anti-wrinkle effects is still unknown according to the researchers.