Garth Cambray wrote: >In short - I would only put propolis on my skin, as a topical, and >would never eat it unless I was sure where they were collecting the >stuff. I would stick to eating things nature wanted me to eat, rather >than stuff it produced to kill things that tried to eat it. Hi Garth, In your place I will be cautious with applying propolis even externally... It may cause you a bad "contact dermatitis". Except the case of propolis allergies, were very tiny amounts of active substances (like prenyl caffeate) can trigger a "bad" reaction, all other medical uses of propolis falls under the general, well known rule of dosage. So, even if ones takes poison, included "Apistan", it will not die if the dose is under the physiological body's control. Coming back to propolis, let's say that without it, more than sure many from our bees on Earth wouldn't be here anymore. Propolis is "bad", "toxic" etc. for almost all microorganisms which attacks the trees/plants and the bees themselves. Of course, it is not a panacea. There are many other things to discuss on this topic, but I believe it's enough for now. Kind regards, Stefan Stangaciu. PS More info on the medical uses & research related to propolis, including "Allergology", Toxicology" etc. you can find in: www.sci.fi/~apither