Melipona, Propolis & Pollen

Melipona bee honey is a thick, sweet-sour liquid obtained from stingless bees of the genus Melipona. This honey is known for being more liquid as its humidity levels, like in the rainforest, are higher. Its color varies depending on the native flowers visited by these bees, ranging from nearly transparent to dark amber, and it features more nutritional and curative properties than honey from the common honeybee. Melipona bees feed on native plants whose flowers, rich in alkaloids and flavonoids, give the honey its highly medicinal properties. The extraction of honey differs from the common one used in beekeeping, which is obtained from comb centrifugation. Melipona bees stock honey in pocket-like wax structures that must be broken or crushed to extract the product.

Honey from stingless bees is used in popular therapies to combat a broad spectrum of health problems, such as cataracts, eye infections, lack of appetite, sores, lung, and upper respiratory tract diseases, many of which related to microorganisms.
The use of stingless bee honey on clinical manifestations where bacteria are usually involved, such as wounds, burned skin, skin diseases, eye infections, lung, and upper respiratory system problems is very popular in traditional medicine and dates back to the ancient times of Mayas and Incas.

“It’s much tastier honey,” said Drexel University entomologist Meghan Barrett in a 2018 interview with NPR. “It’s runnier. It’s more floral. It’s very delicious, but [there are] much smaller amounts of it, so you need a lot more bees.”

This resinous substance that bees collect from the buds and bark of plants and transport to the hive in small loads upon their hind legs. This substance is then processed with the addition of wax, pollen, and enzymes produced by the bees themselves. Bees spread this mix on the interior walls of the beehive and on the bottom of the honeycombs to kill fungi, bacteria, and viruses.

Specifically, propolis contains polyphenols called flavonoids. Flavonoids are produced in plants as a form of protection. These are powerful antioxidants that help in the healing process.

Propolis also has many important properties of use to humans: antibacterial, fungicidal, anti-inflammatory, antiviral, anticoagulant, antiparasitic, antioxidant, healing, immunoregulatory, liver detoxifier and protector and blood circulation stimulant.

The propolis is dissolved in an alcohol solution. A high quality product reaches 15% propolis content and is a dark intransparent liquid. Depending on the Beespecies there is apart from the regual Propolis an other so called Geo-Propolis that include Minerals from soil as well.

Pollen is quite a varied plant product rich in biologically active substances. It gets collected by the bees for eating and is therefore also known as bee bread. Bee pollen has been proposed as a valuable dietary supplement rich in vitamins such as provitamin A and vitamins E and D, B1, B2, B6, and C, and acids: pantothenic, nicotinic and folic, biotin, rutin, and inositol.

It contains about 25% of protein, 30% of carbohydrates, and 25% of simple sugars such as fructose and glucose. Many studies have examined the health effects of bee pollen and found promising results such as anti-inflammatory and detoxicating properties.