TRACES of the banned antibiotic chloramphenicol have been found in a specific brand of imported royal jelly, the head of the State lab, Dina Akkelidou, said yesterday.
Chloramphenicol is used in the treatment of infections caused by bacteria and works by killing bacteria or preventing their growth. But the problem lies in the fact that this particular drug can cause the very serious condition of aplastic anaemia, she said.
“The manufacture and use of chloramphenicol was prohibited decades ago because of this dangerous side effect. Now, it is only used in very limited cases for serious infections in which other medicines do not work and the patient’s doctor closely monitors its dosage,” said Akkelidou. “It has even been banned in animals, although some people still use it to prevent specific forms of bacteria from developing in their livestock or to fatten them up.”
The European Union Rapid Alert System had alerted the state lab about the product category royal jelly and capsules of lyophilised royal jelly of the brands Gelle Royale Pure Vrac, Gelle Royale Lyophilisee and Royal Jelly Top 800-Kaps, containing traces of the antibiotic, said Akkelidou.
“All countries carry out both routine and spot checks on certain products,” she said. “However, irrespective of how large or efficient a state laboratory is, it is virtually impossible to investigate every single product on the market. With this in mind, the EU established the Rapid Alert System. When one country finds traces of a potentially harmful substance in one of their products, all other member states are informed and can carry out their own surveys.”
That was why a complete analysis on the particular products was carried out, which confirmed the presence of the potentially lethal antibiotic, she said.
Akkelidou said that although there were occasional spot checks on products that were least likely to contain harmful substances, the state lab could not test every single foodstuff.
“Royal jelly is not part of our routine investigation programme, which was why we did not know traces of the antibiotic had been added to it. In fact it was by chance that another EU country found traces of it as well,” she said, explaining that it was not a product that was usually investigated.
Royal jelly is the food secreted by the nurse bees and fed to the growing Queen. It is a very rich source of proteins and contains eight essential amino acids, important fatty acids, sugars, sterols and phosphorous compounds, vitamins A, B-complex, C, D, E and folic acid. It also supplies the minerals, calcium, copper, iron, phosphorous, potassium, silicon and sulphur. Although royal jelly has been traditionally known to prolong youthfulness and improve skin beauty, evidence also indicates that the substance increases energy, alleviates anxiety, sleeplessness, moodiness, memory loss, and bolsters the immune system.
“I do not know if chloramphenicol was administered to the bees themselves or if it was directly added to the royal jelly. Either way it is irrelevant, because the fact remains that an illegal, potentially dangerous substance was present in a product being consumed by the public, and it is our job to see that it is located, removed from the market and destroyed,” said Akkelidou.
So far, no one had showed any signs of suffering from aplastic anaemia. However, it might still be too early to tell as it was not a disease that manifested overnight, she said.
Patients with aplastic anaemia have a complete failure of production of all types of blood cells. As a result, the bone marrow contains large numbers of fat cells instead of the blood producing cells, which would ordinarily be present, according to the UK Leukaemia Research Fund.
“The disease in most cases is acquired, and it is thought that the damage to bone marrow stem cells is caused by an auto-immune reaction. This happens when the body’s immune cells become confused and start to attack body tissues.
“In about three quarters of all cases of aplastic anaemia this autoimmune reaction has no clear underlying cause, but there is evidence of exposure to certain drugs, chemicals and diseases that are known to cause damage to bone marrow stem cells,” said the Fund. One such antibiotic is chloramphenicol.
Symptoms include fatigue, paleness, shortness of breath on exertion, rapid heart rate, infections, rashes, unexplained widespread bruising, nosebleeds, bleeding gums and prolonged bleeding. Initial symptoms may appear to be nothing worse than excessive tiredness or a bout of flu.
Severe aplastic anaemia is a life-threatening condition. Studies have shown that mortality one year after diagnosis is more than 80 per cent for patients with a severe condition of the disease that is not treated aggressively. Non-severe conditions have a better prognosis.
The state lab intends to carry out more surveys on other royal jelly products as well as imported shrimps that have been said to contain traces of chloramphenicol. Three years ago, the lab also found traces of the antibiotic in local pork, said Akkelidou.
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