▲ Bncare / CEO Lee Yong-rim

Propolis or bee glue is a resinous mixture that honey bees produce by mixing saliva and beeswax with exudate gathered from tree buds, sap flows, or other botanical sources. Among the people, it is known to inhibit the development of cancer and to slow aging thanks to antibacterial and antioxidant functions it has.

Related health supplements started to appear on the market from 1996 in South Korea and today the substance is widely used in food, cosmetics and medicines.

All higher plants contain flavonoid and polyphenol which often called chlorophyll. Chlorophyll checks fungus and it is the reason that plants change color seasonally. There are about 7,000 kinds of flavonoid and 4,000 kinds of polyphenol in the natural world. 

Honey bees collect these two substances and mix them with their saliva. Breaking down propolis, it contains 67 to 124 kinds of flavonoid and 180 kinds of polyphenol. It is notable that propolis produced in South Korea has richer in nutritional contents.

"This is because South Korea has 4 distinctive seasons and honey bees collect far more variety of nutritional contents which in fact makes it harder for producers to filter. For the same reason, the benefits and effects are greater. It is also richer in quercetin (a plant flavonoid from the flavonoid group of polyphenol) which stimulates diuretic effect" explains Lee Yong-rim, CEO of Bncare.

Bncare is a sole South Korean company specialized in processing propolis and making it into water soluble powder products. The company has unique propolis production technologies and is received as the leader of the field. 

Natural propolis is fat soluble meaning it is hard to melt, and the reason many producers are using synthetic emulsifying agent. Bncare, on the other hand, uses natural emulsifying agent made from cyclodextrin extracted from potato starch.

Bncare has obtained patents for propolis particle coating technology and for propolis freeze drying technology. The company's advanced 'instant liquid-to-sold transformation technique' makes it possible to transform high molecule propolis to small molecule propolis by combining it with cyclodextrin. 

Powerking Propolis, the essence of these advanced technologies of Bncare, is easy to melt in water regardless temperature and boasts excellent absorption in the body. 

Bncare produces 80% of all propolis-related products in South Korea through original equipment manufacturing (OEM). Bncare and Hanyang University carried out a project in 2019 on 'water solution propolis optimized process and antioxident/immuneactivities development'. 

The result was that the products made by Bncare showed 80 to 400% better at DPPH assay, 45 to 718% at FRAP assay, and 14 to 147% at ROS assay than similar products. Bncare products showed 1.8 to 5 times more elimination effect at DPPH free radical than similar products, 1.45 to 8.18 times at antioxidant effacement, and 1.14 to 2.47 times at ROS generation inhibition. 

Lee has walked a single path as a propolis researcher and specialist for the last 20 years. It is not much to say that he is one of the pioneers of propolis industry in South Korea. He established Bncare in 2006 and relocated the factory to the current location in 2014 alongside opening a research lab and obtaining a good manufacturing practice (GMP) certificate.

In 2016 he succeeded developing a raw royal jelly drink and in 2018 obtained an agricultural convergence company certificate and in 2020 completed water soluble propolis manufacturing optimization. December 2020 he listed his name in the Sinzisikin (New Intellectuals). 

Gathering 20 years of his knowledge, knowhow and expertise in the field, Lee is determined to challenge global market with unrivaled technologies and passion of Bncare.