Botanical origin, chemical composition, and bioactive properties of propolis of stingless bees from Argentina

ROMERO C. A. ; FERNANDEZ N. L. ; NAVARRO A. S.; YAMUL D. K.

Pot Propolis in Stingless bee ecology

Springer Nature Switzerland AG

Año: 2023;

Wild native bees provide human beings and ecosystems different services as pollinators andsources of highly appreciated honey in the international market. Despite this importance,taxonomic knowledge and data on geographic distribution or properties of Meliponini(stingless bee) honey and propolis in Argentina are scarce. Beekeeping is, in essence, amultiproduct activity but honey production dominates and propolis has a marginal place.Moreover, stingless bees have a low production of propolis on a per hive basis (compared to A.mellifera) which limits commercial development and has excited little interest in the food,cosmetic, and pharmaceutical industries. In Argentina, meliponiculture is incipient and severalinstitutions have programs for its expansion. To the best of our knowledge, these programslack any focus on propolis. Currently, Argentinian stingless bee propolis has been studied onlyregarding biological properties without palynological study. The field of Argentinian stinglessbee propolis remains unexplored and waits for scientists to discover it.