The upper respiratory system includes the nose, nasal cavity, pharynx, and larynx with subglottic area of trachea.
Respiratory tract diseases affect a large number of people worldwide: in the European Union (EU), for instance, 7% of hospital admissions are linked to respiratory illnesses, which are responsible for approximately 12% of all-cause deaths.
Upper and lower respiratory tract infections (RTIs) are common conditions for which medical advice is regularly sought, and their management relies on the use of prescription and over-the-counter (OTC) medicines (Hamoen et al. 2014). The World Health Organization (WHO) alerts that about 80% of antibiotics are used in the community, of which about 20 e 50% are used inappropriately (WHO, 2017).
Bee products have been used empirically for centuries especially for the treatment of respiratory diseases. Propolis can significantly reduce the number and severity of nighttime asthma attacks, improve pulmonary function and reduce inflammation (Khayyal et al., 2003). Subjects with pharyngitis treated with propolis showed a significant positive trend in symptom relief with a reduction in sore throat, fever, adenomegaly, pharyngeal erythema and exudate with the only exception in the nasal secretion that showed no clear signs of improvement (Di Pierro et al., 2016). Propolis can be effective in relieving symptoms of allergic rhinitis by inhibiting the release of histamine (Shinmei et al., 2009). In addition, propolis is able to reduce allergic pulmonary inflammation in murine model through the involvement of lung inflammatory cells and the decrease of polymorphonuclear inflammatory cells (de Farias et al., 2014).
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