As part of the efforts which have been taken to revamp the health sector of Nigeria, manufacturers in Nigeria have been urged to utilise and leverage on the potential of bee extracts- propolis, royal jelly and bee venom for enhanced food, pharmaceutical, and cosmetics production.
Prof. Ibrahim Hussaini Doko, the Director-General, Raw Materials Research and Development Council (RMRDC), harped on the importance of these substances on Wednesday at the council’s sensitisation workshop in Lagos.
Represented by Dr Anthony Negedu, Director, Agriculture and Agro Allied Department, RMRDC, Doko said that urgent efforts needed to be taken toward harnessing the health benefits of bee extracts in Nigeria.
He said that the applications of bee products in both traditional and modern medicine had proven to be highly efficient in its contribution to excellent health and reduction of chronic diseases.
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He noted that propolis was known for its numerous applications in treating various diseases due to its antiseptic, anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, anti-bacterial, antifungal, anti-cellular, and anti-cancer properties.
Doko added that the utilization of these extracts would improve the lot of the manufacturing sector and also help save finances on importation and the country’s crucial foreign exchange, thereby bettering the Nigerian economy.
He said that the Federal Government was committed to the success of the project and was ready to identify for the purpose of regulation and certification including financing where necessary.
“Royal jelly is widely used as a dietary nutritional complex to help combat various chronic health conditions and many pharmacological activities such as anti-bacterial, anti-tumor, anti-allergy, anti-inflammatory effects have also been attributed to it.
“The RMRDC is the leading agency for bee hive products sensitization nationwide and the vast knowledge and experience needs to be offloaded to the relevant sectoral stakeholders for products development towards national economic and health building.
“In view of the potency of the extracts against fungi, bacterial and virus caused diseases and honey acceptability in pharmaceutical product formulations, this conference will be accepted particularly as cure for COVID-19 is on the front burner globally.
“The council is sensitizing the pharmaceuticals, cosmetic and food sub sectors of MAN of the importance and the huge potentials of investing and utilizing these products.
“This import substitution will save the country a lot of finance, create jobs and serve as an avenue for national economic development,” he said.
Also, Dr Sunday Onjewu, Director, Entrepreneurship Centre, Redeemers’ College of Technology and Management, emphasized that bee keeping had gone beyond honey production to disease curing.
“We are looking at the local content that we have to fight these diseases of which beekeeping has a very critical role to play due to the absence of side effects as a natural product.
“We have the plantation, the forests, the tree and bee hives; all we need to do is harness the potential available to us,” he said.
In his response, Mr Segun Ajayi-Kadir, Director- General, Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) said manufacturers had for long been handicapped by imported materials for production.
He urged manufacturers to partner with the council to break the barrier, by diving into the potentials of bee keeping for enhanced manufacturing production.