Apitoxin, or honey bee venom, is a bitter colourless liquid.

Phospholipase A2 amounts to 10-12% of peptides and it is the most destructive component of apitoxin.

Apitoxin is similar to nettle toxin.

Apamin is an 18 amino acid peptide neurotoxin found in apitoxin (bee venom).

Melittin is the principal active component of apitoxin (bee venom) and is a powerful stimulator of phospholipase A2.

The first symptoms of apitoxin (bee venom), that are now thought to be caused by apamin, were described back in 1936 by Hahn and Leditschke.

Bee venom (apitoxin) is obtained by stimulating the bee with an electrical current that incite them to sting, releasing a drop of poison onto a glass slide.

The sting's injection of apitoxin into the victim is accompanied by the release of alarm pheromones, a process which is accelerated if the bee is fatally injured.

Tertiapin is a compound of the honey bee venom (apitoxin) that causes pain and signs of inflammation around the sting, but a great number of stings can be lethal (LD50 is 18-22 stings per kg for humans).

Because they are tasked to defend their hives and food stores, bees synthesize and employ an acidic venom (apitoxin) to cause pain in those that they sting, whereas wasps use a chemically different venom designed to paralyze prey, so it can be stored alive in the food chambers of their young.