A bee health product with cancer-fighting properties could become an even bigger export earner than Manuka honey, according to the professor who uncovered its benefits.

Melbourne-based professor Hiroshi Maruta led international research that found Bio 30 bee propolis from New Zealand suppresses neurofibromatosis, a condition that affects the skin and nervous system of one in 3000 people.

Dr Maruta is a visiting professor at Hamburg University Hospital, the University of Maryland in Baltimore, and La Trobe University in Melbourne.

A company that sells nutritional supplements made from bovine colostrum has made a big upgrade to its profit forecast, a rare occurrence in these troubled financial times.

New Image Group announced today that the expected result for the six months to December 31 2008 is “markedly different” to the update given at the company’s annual meeting in October, and unlike most companies, the numbers are going up.

The final result will be announced later this month, but the provisional, unaudited consolidated result looks promising for investors.