Carniolan honey bees (Apis mellifera carnica) are considered as an indigenous subspecies in Hungary adapted to most of the ecological and climatic conditions in this area. However, during the last decades Hungarian beekeepers have recognized morphological signs of the Italian honey bee (Apis mellifera ligustica). As the natural distribution of the honey bee subspecies can be affected by the imp...

Little information is available regarding the adverse effects of pesticides on natural honey bee populations. This study highlights the detrimental effects of pesticides on honey bee olfaction through behavioural studies, scanning electron microscopic imaging of antennal sensillae and confocal microscopic studies of honey bee brains for calcium ions on Apis cerana, a native Indian honey bee spe...

Until now, the properties of honey have been defined based exclusively on the content of plant components in the nectar of given plant. We showed that apalbumin1, the major royal jelly (RJ) protein, is an authentic and regular component of honey. Apalbumin1 and other RJ proteins and peptides are responsible for the immunostimulatory properties and antibiotic activity of honey. For the quantific...

We characterized, for the first time, the quality and identity of Brazilian Pampa biome honey and its antioxidant properties in vitro (FRAP, DDPH and ABTS). The potential protective effect of honey against oxidative stress induced by iron (Fe) and paraquat, (PQ) in a Drosophila melanogaster model (in vivo) was also tested. The results indicated that all honey samples tested showed antioxidant a...

Honey is known as natural sweetener since ancient time with medicinal value .In Indian system of Medicine, honey’s well described propertie is Yogavahi (synergism/potentiating).We clinically evaluated the potentiating effect of honey with mandur bhasma on 30 patients both male and female upon oral delivery of medicine with honey. We observed better improvement in level of Hemoglobin /Serum Iron...

The definition of honey in both standards is the same: “Honey is the natural sweet substance, produced by honey bees from the nectar of plants or from secretions of living parts of plants or excretions of plant-sucking insects on the living parts of plants, which the bees collect, transform by combining with specific substances of their own, deposit, dehydrate, store and leave in honeycombs to ...

Health benefits of honey have been reported in a variety of conditions including microbial infections, wound healing, inflammation, glucose tolerance and analgesia. Honey is a supersaturated sugar solution mainly comprised of D-fructose, D-glucose, sucrose, maltose and higher sugars (~80% of solid mass). While other natural products i.e. alkaloids, flavonoids/isoflavones, glycosides, phenolics,...

OBJECTIVE Honey has antibacterial activity. The aim of this study was to evaluate the antibacterial activity of honey on Streptococcus mutans and Lactobacillus. MATERIALS AND METHODS In this in vitro study, solutions containing 0%, 5%, 10%, 20%, 50% and 100%(w/v) of natural Hamadan honey were prepared. Each blood (nutrient) agar plate was then filled with dilutions of the honey. The strains o...

Little is known of the potential coevolution of flowers and bees in changing, biodiverse environments. Female solitary bees, megachilids and Centris, and their nest pollen provisions were monitored with trap nests over a 17-year period in a tropical Mexican biosphere reserve. Invasion by feral Apis (i.e. Africanized honey bees) occurred after the study began, and major droughts and hurricanes o...

Pollinators for animal pollinated crops can be provided by natural and semi-natural habitats, ranging from large vegetation remnants to small areas of non-crop land in an otherwise highly modified landscape. It is unknown, however, how different small- and large-scale habitat patches interact as pollinator sources. In the intensively managed Argentine Pampas, we studied the additive and interac...