Abstract
Stingless bees are kinds of pollinating insects with important ecological and economic values, belonging to the Tribe Meliponini of the Family Apidae. Similar to honeybees, stingless bees collect nectar from the nectary of flowering plants, and such sweet substance stored in the hives is so-called stingless bee honey. Compared to ordinary honeybee honey, stingless bee honey has a stronger aroma, showing the characteristics with high moisture content, high acidity, low sugar content, and slow crystallization. In addition, it has a unique taste with beneficial medicinal values. Therefore, recent years stingless bee honey studies have become a hot spot in the international bee products research area. The distribution area of stingless bees in China is quite limited, and only distributed in tropical and subtropical regions like Yunnan, Hainan, Guangxi, Tibet and Taiwan Provinces. As a result, there are relatively few studies on stingless bee honey in China. This article reviews the recent advance of researches of stingless bee honey from our group as well as studies across the world. The physical and chemical indexes and pharmacological activities of the stingless bees are also been summarized. We aim to provide reference for further researches of stingless bee honey in China relating the quality standard, nutritional quality and function evaluation studies.
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