Honey bee and the products (honey, pollen, wax, propolis) are generally considered as efficient bioindicators of the environmental pollution. Honey bee activity upon a territory is well defined both in space and time and honey bee itself is easier to control than other animal bioindicators (birds, fish, wild animals) . Networks of bee hives near nuclear and industrial installations are therefor...

Ecosystem services are critical to human survival; in selected cases, maintaining these services provides a powerful argument for conserving biodiversity. Yet, the ecological and economic underpinnings of most services are poorly understood, impeding their conservation and management. For centuries, farmers have imported colonies of European honey bees (Apis mellifera) to fields and orchards fo...

Except for honey as food, and silk for clothing and pollination of plants, people give little thought to the benefits of insects in their lives. This overview briefly describes significant recent advances in developing insect natural products as potential new medicinal drugs. This is an exciting and rapidly expanding new field since insects are hugely variable and have utilised an enormous rang...

As antimicrobial drugs destroy microorganisms or stop their growth, they are used to treat infections. Due the increasing resistance of infectious agents drugs, there is a need find new natural products with properties. Natural such as bee honey, propolis, pollen, bread, and royal jelly important numerous different active biological features, antiviral among them. The aim this study was investi...

Natural honey contains several enzymes, which are produced by bees (salivary secretion) and some are found in the nectar or pollen. The most important enzymes are amylases, invertases, glusidases, catalases, fosfatases and other. The activity of diastase (α-, β-, γ-amylase) is the important quality parameter of honey, according to the Directive 2001/110/CE the diastase activity (diastase number...

Background: Honey is a natural product, but it can be adulterated or heat-treated, both of which damage the properties of the original product. This research was focused on the evaluation of quality parameters of some commercial honeys produced in México.  Methods: Fifteen samples of commercial honeys available in Mexican market were collected. Some physicochemical parameters were determined, ...

Honey bee workers (Apis mellifera) consume a variety of pollens to meet the majority of their requirements for protein and lipids. Recent work indicates that honey bees prefer diets that reflect the proper ratio of nutrients necessary for optimal survival and homeostasis. This idea relies on the precept that honey bees evaluate the nutritional composition of the foods provided to them. While th...

27 Social pollinators such as honey bees face attacks from predators not only at the nest, but also during 28 foraging. Pollinating honey bees can therefore release alarm pheromones that deter conspecifics from visiting 29 dangerous inflorescences. However, the effect of alarm pheromone and its chemical components upon bee 30 avoidance of dangerous food sources remains unclear. We tested the re...

BACKGROUND Honey has been shown to have beneficial effects on the glucose and lipid profiles in patients at high risk of heart diseases. Therefore, this study was carried out to investigate the effects of natural honey on blood glucose and lipid profile in healthy individuals. METHODS A randomized controlled trial was carried out in the Army Medical College, Rawalpindi, Pakistan, spanning 4 w...

BACKGROUND Burn wound infection remains the principal cause of death in burn patients. Efficacy of honey and aloe vera gel was evaluated in the treatment of burn wound infection induced with Klebsiella pneumoniae B5055 and their efficacy was compared with an isolated and well-characterized Klebsiella specific phage Kpn5. METHODOLOGY A full thickness burn wound was induced in mice and infected...