• The Journal of Korean Medicine
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• v.16 no.1 s.29
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• pp.227-249
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• 1995

Pursuant to the Medical Product Safety Administration Guidelines for safety assessment of Korean bee vonom for herb-acupuncture, rabbits were used for skin, eye balls, subcutaneous and muscle irritation test. The results were as follows; 1. The skin irritation test of bee venom for herb-acupuncture did not produce any irritation reactions, when the skin was covered with bee venom. 2. The eye irritation test produced moderate to severe stimulating reactions, once the eye mucous membrane was contacted with bee venom. 3. The subcutaneous and muscle irritation test of bee venom showed such local inflammatory reactions as death of cells, infiltration of inflamed cells, dropsical swelling, and congestion, once injected under the skin and in the muscle. As the results of the study on bee venom for herb-acupuncture indicate that severe reactions in such tests as eye balls, subcutancous and muscle irritation exist in the laboratory, more professional caution should be taken in clinical application of the therapy. In addition, further study on subacute, chronic toxicity and allergy reactions should be pursued.