Approved Propolis Medicines Are Available to the General Public for Purchase.
Romania Is far Advanced with Respect to the Approval of Bee Products as Medicines.

Approved bee product medicines and health foods on the shelves of the pharmacy.

What we thought to be the most significant difference between Romania and Japan during this trip is in the ways of thinking concerning medicine approval in the two countries. At the Pharmacy, situated immediately next to the Medical Center of Apiterapia, many kinds of royal jelly and propolis products are available as "approved medicines". "In Romania, a product approved by the Research Laboratory of Hygiene, which is an organization within the Ministry of Health, can be sold to the general public. Many bee products are given the status of approved medicines," we were told. The Medical Center Pharmacy has a friendly atmosphere, such as a "pharmacy in the neighborhood" of Japan, and anyone can feel relaxed while shopping. Medicines are developed by the research laboratory, and then applied as actual treatment. The result of the clinical observation is returned into the research work, which accumulates over time to further the safety and reliability of such bee products as approved medicines. This highly developed practice of "apitherapy" has recently attracted attention from other developed Western nations, and many foreign delegates are visiting Romania's Apiterapia (the National Medical Center of Apitherapy). Our own visit was full of new findings about "apitherapy" and made us think "what is weal the wealth of a society?" Every facility that we visited was not necessarily equipped with state-of-the-art technology as compared to the Japanese standard. However, in keeping the beautiful nature where honeybees live, in learning a healthy way of living from nature, and in making the most of the medical practice as the gift of nature to help people keep their health, Romania showed us her real richness.