What is beeswax?
Beeswax is the colored creamy substance bees use to build the honeycomb that forms the structure of the beehive. The comb provides the structure of the bees' home and is used for all storage functions, such as storing honey and pollen, laying eggs, and growing young bees. Pure beeswax is white, but with pollen and other materials, it turns yellow.
All types of bees produce beeswax, secreted by young worker bees from four pairs of wax glands located on the ventral surface of the plates on the underside of the bee's body. The liquid wax spreads over the surface of these plates and when it comes into contact with air, it hardens and forms one wax crust on each ventral crust. The worker bee produces eight wax crusts every 12 hours.
The size of the wax glands depends on the worker's age, as they are at their largest when the bee reaches 12 days of age and decrease directly after the eighteenth day until the end of its life. Bees need a million of these wax crusts to produce 1 kilogram of wax.
The bee uses the coarse hairs on its hind legs to remove the wax crusts and pass them to the middle legs and then to the jaws where the wax is chewed, and the saliva secretions mix with the wax. When its consistency becomes suitable, the new wax is used to build honeycombs or close the honeycomb cells. Bees are stimulated to produce wax when there is a surplus of honey to store and a shortage in honeycombs. Bees consume about 8 kilograms of honey to produce every kilogram of wax.
Uses of beeswax:
Beeswax is used in a wide range of fields, in addition to eating it directly (chewing). It is used in the manufacture of cosmetics and medical preparations such as skin ointments, where high-quality wax must be used. It is also used in the manufacture of candles, as candles made from beeswax are considered to be more expensive compared to synthetic wax.
Benefits and ways to use beeswax for the skin:
Beeswax is rich in vitamin A, which is one of the most important vitamins for the production of collagen, which is important for the skin, as it works to moisturize it and renew skin cells, thus fighting signs of aging,
Topical use of beeswax in cases of superficial burns accelerates the recovery of the burned skin . Its richness in antibacterial properties helps sterilize and disinfect the skin by forming a barrier that prevents skin contamination. It also reduces the severity of itching and the feeling of burning heat, meaning it works as a moisturizer.
Moisturizing the skin is one of the most important properties of beeswax, due to its richness in vitamins and moisture. It works to protect the skin from dryness by trapping moisture within the layers of the skin without clogging the pores. It is also recommended to use it as a lip moisturizer in cases of cracked and dry lips.
It also showed positive results in contributing to the treatment of acne and pimples and reducing the severity of scars and wounds.
How do I know the original wax from the fake wax?
There is more than one way to discover the quality of beeswax. You can test it and check whether the wax is natural or adulterated:
The color of beeswax changes (from white to yellow, orange, red, brown, etc.) due to the presence of different materials such as pollen, and this is not important in terms of quality, but in general, light-colored wax is considered more valuable than dark-colored wax.
Pure beeswax has a pleasant smell, and when the wax block is broken, its surface appears granular, which does not appear when it is adulterated with paraffin, fat, or any other oil.
When chewing pure, unadulterated wax, the wax does not stick to the teeth, and when passing it between the fingers, it softens and does not stick to the fingers. As for beeswax mixed with paraffin wax, it becomes more transparent and slightly oily to the touch.
Pure beeswax is solid at room temperature, becomes brittle when the temperature drops below 18°C, and becomes soft and flexible at 35°C with a melting point of 64°C.
Where can I find the best beeswax?
As we have always been keen in Al-Thunayan Apiaries in all our branches, to provide everything related to honey and local and imported honey products, with the best possible quality, and within health and safety standards, we offer you today Sidr beeswax with high-quality and excellent nutritional value, and experience is the best proof.
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