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Comparative analysis of the chemical properties of honeys produced by bees within the Meliponini and Apini tribes in Thailand

par Papageorges, Maud
Président du jury Roisin, Yves
Promoteur Vereecken, Nicolas
Publication Non publié, 2022-01-25

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Résumé :

Stingless bees (Meliponini tribe) are eusocial insects endemic to the tropical regions of theworld where over 500 species have currently been described. Much like their westerncounterpart, Apis mellifera (Apini tribe), they produce honeys with distinctive characteristics,which are consumed for both their nutritional values and therapeutic properties.In recent years the scientific interest in stingless bees and their honey has grown, mostly dueto the growing number of reports on its potential superior health benefits and potentialcommercial opportunities. In Thailand specifically, meliponiculture is still in its developingstages and research on the composition of honey produced by Thai stingless bees is scarce.The general consensus on stingless bee honey composition is that it has a higher moisturecontent, higher acidity levels and a contrasting sugar profile. However more in-depth studieson the detailed composition of these honeys are needed to understand the origin and driversbehind the compositional differentiation between the two types of honey.In this context, we investigated the effects of bee species identity, tribe identity and harvestinglocation on the variance of chemical composition among 64 samples from both Thai honey beespecies and stingless bee species. We used nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy toquantify 35 chemical compounds, namely sugars, organic acids and amino acids. Thesequantifications combined with multivariate analysis allowed us to identify significantcompositional variations at tribe, genus and species level. Additionally, potential indicatorcompounds were identified to discriminate honeys based on taxonomic origin. And finally, wewere able to compare the effects of the harvesting location and species-specific differences,which we found to be the main source of variation, on sugar, amino acid and organic acidcontents.Filling the gap in knowledge regarding stingless bee honey composition will stimulate theresearch and development of meliponiculture in Thailand. This will, in turn, enable the creationof specific international quality standards, thus maintaining the ancient traditional knowledgeassociated with meliponiculture and ensuring the conservation of stingless bee species and theirenvironment.