Antioxidant activity of and interleukin production affected by honey bee venom.

Honey bee venom is found to inhibit significantly nonenzymatic lipid peroxidation. It also possesses a considerable hydroxyl radical scavenging activity, evaluated by its competition with dimethyl sulfoxide for HO.. These results, in relation to the in vitro suppression mainly of interleukin-1 production offered by honey bee venom, may further support that antioxidant activity is involved in the anti-inflammatory activity of honey bee venom.