Bernard Descottes
1943 - 2009
By Prof. Roch Domerego
President of the European Company of Apitherapy, Apimondia
Vice President of Apitherapy Commission of Apimondia

Towards the end of 2009 the world of Apitherapy lost one of its greatest adcovates.

Bernard Descottes left us. He was my friend. And I was his.

As always, when a friend leaves us prematurely, we get at first invaded by a feeling of injustice, and more so when illness takes a man who spent his whole life fighting illness. The bitterness of defeat adds then to the injustice.

And now, the work he leaves behind him will stay as his biggest accomplishment.

I spent two beautiful years next to Bernard, as consultant in his gastro-intestinal surgical division of the University Hospital Center of Limoges (France). He was a magnificent surgeon, acknowledged so by all his peers. He had however also a wide open mind, who, as one of these too rare scientists, had the capacity of considering that, in order to resolve problems of health, one could conceive of solutions that had not been taught in classes run by the Faculty. In his division, we worked together on the healing properties of honey, considered then a heresy by many of his colleagues.

He integrated Apitherapy into the hospital protocols, selected honeys, created standards for them, organized comparative studies with the products from the chemical pharmacy. His team of nurses developed his technique over 15 years, which brought natural solutions that have become standards today. Many hospitals in Europe and in the world at large base their use of honey in cicatrization on his research. He had become a specialist in Apitherapy. He developed a passion, which he conveyed to all the members of his team, particularly to his remarkable nurses who were totally devoted to him.

He never spoke publically without making emotional references to “his bees”, as he used to call them. His conferences, his lectures were each time exceptional moments of pedagogy and teaching for those who enjoyed the privilege of attending them.

I have often met him again in apicultural congresses or in Apimondia, and we exchanged memories of these thrilling months spent determining the right formula for his patients whom he “served” with a total determination, to lighten their post-operative pain, and to lead them to a faster healing. We exchanged ideas about the need for research and for the ongoing development of apitherapy.

“The best ones are always the first to go” This proverb is once more confirmed.

The Apitherapy Commission of Apimondia joins me in presenting the family our most sincere condolences and to honor a man devoted to science and nature.