A Preliminary Study of Chemical Profiles of Honey, Cerumen, and Propolis of the African Stingless Bee Meliponula ferruginea.

Milena Popova,Vassya Bankova,Svetlana Simova,Ozgur Ceylan,Kerry Clark,Dessislava Gerginova,Boryana Trusheva,Alfred Ngenge Tamfu

doi:10.3390/foods10050997

Abstract

Recently, the honey and propolis of stingless bees have been attracting growing attention because of their health-promoting properties. However, studies on these products of African Meliponini are still very scarce. In this preliminary study, we analyzed the chemical composition of honey, two cerumen, and two resin deposits (propolis) samples of Meliponula ferruginea from Tanzania. The honey of M. ferruginea was profiled by NMR and indicated different long-term stability from Apis mellifera European (Bulgarian) honey. It differed significantly in sugar and organic acids content and had a very high amount of the disaccharide trehalulose, known for its bioactivities. We suggested trehalulose to be a potential marker for African stingless bee honey analogously to the recent proposal for Meliponini honey from Asia, South America, and Australia and demonstrated its easy discrimination by 13C NMR. Propolis and cerumen were studied by GC-MS (gas chromatography-mass spectometry). The samples contained mainly terpenoids (di-and triterpenes) but demonstrated qualitative and quantitative differences. This fact was an indication that possibly M. ferruginea has no strict preferences for resins used to construct and protect their nests. The antimicrobial and anti-quorum sensing properties of the two materials were also tested. These first results demonstrated that the honey, cerumen, and propolis of African stingless bees were rich in biologically active substances and deserved further research.

Highlights

Stingless bees (Meliponini, Apidae) are closely related to honeybees Apis mellifera, but their stings are reduced and not used for defense, the name stingless
We described, for the first time, the chemical profiling of honey, propolis, and cerumen
The results were compared to a chemical profile based on 10 typical Bulgarian honeys of A. mellifera in order to stress the specificity of the stingless bee honey

Summary

Introduction

Stingless bees (Meliponini, Apidae) are closely related to honeybees Apis mellifera, but their stings are reduced and not used for defense, the name stingless. The Meliponini live in the tropical regions of the world: South and Central America, Southeast Asia, tropical Africa, and Australia [1]. Like honeybees, they are eusocial and produce honey, pollen, wax, and propolis/cerumen [2]. M. ferruginea use cerumen, a mixture of wax and plant resins, to build protective and supporting nest structures as well as honey pots (Figure S1). The chemistry of these materials has never been studied. The sugar content of M. ferruginea honey was found to be from 9.1 to 63.4% [9], and it has demonstrated antimicrobial properties [10], but no individual sugars or other constituents have been identified

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Results

Discussion

Conclusion