Plant Essential Oils Used Against Some Bee Diseases

Abstract

The most common honey bee diseases are American foulbrood (AFB) caused by the bacterium Paenibacillus larvae, Chalkbrood caused by fungus Ascosphaera apis and diseases caused by parasitic mites such as Acarapis woodi, Varroa destructor. These diseases and pests not only cause economic loss but also cause ecological problems related to the role of honey bees, as the most important pollinators on Earth. Synthetic acaricides and antibiotics are used to keep the diseases and mites in control. Use of the drugs lead to the development of drug-resistant organisms, detrimental effect on non-target organisms and the residue problem in bee products. For this reasons, the need for alternative control methods has become compulsory in recent years. It has been known that some plant oils used widely in perfumery and food industry for flavor and smell have been used as repellent to certain insects, bactericide and fungicide. Therefore, intensive studies have been carried out on plants with anti-mites, antibacterial and antifungal potentials and these studies are still going on. Recently, studies in this area have shown that essential oils of plants such as thyme, cloves, mint, lemon grass, cinnamon, grapefruit, rosemary, marigold, are lethal to some mites, bacteria and fungi. In addition, it has been reported that some components, isolated from these plants such as sanguinarine, thymoquinone, capsaicin, carvacrol, citral, eugenol, thymol, show these effects on the organisms. As a result, in countries rich in biodiversity due to endemic plant species, the essential oils used in control of these diseases should be favored instead of or in combination with conventional drugs in integrated the disease management programs because of the lack of harmful effects of essential oils on non-target organisms and environment.

Valorization of hop leaves for development of eco-friendly bee pesticides

“…It is also primordial that the emerging alternatives of control ensure low or null bee toxicity when they are applied within beehives. To reach these objectives, alternative methods proposed include the use of natural bioactive substances, which includes plant extracts (Flesar et al 2010;Sabate et al 2012;Boligon et al 2013;Damiani et al 2014), essential oils (Alippi 1996;Fuselli et al 2006;Ansari et al 2016;Tutun et al 2018), pure compounds extracted from plants, bacteria, or fungus (Fuselli et al 2006;Maggi et al 2010;Flesar et al 2010;Sabate et al 2012;Brasesco et al 2017;Khan et al 2009), and honeybee by-products, such as propolis (Antúnez et al 2008;Bilikova et al 2013, Fangio et al 2019) and royal jelly (Bilikova et al 2013).…”

Effects of Carvacrol on Staphylococcus aureus isolated from bulk tank milk

“…They can be used to fight infectious diseases (23,26). Plants and their essential oils are sources of compounds showing antimicrobial activities against a wide variety of bacteria (23,46). In particular, oxygenated monoterpenes, which are widespread components of essential oils such as thymol and carvacrol, exhibit strong antimicrobial properties (40).…”

Investigation of the effects of different disinfectant solutions on honey bees (Apis mellifera )

“…In the fight against bee diseases, unconscious longterm medication resulting from the wrong practices and overdosing should be considered as an important problem. As a result of the use of unlicensed drugs, bee disease factors and pests that have developed resistance against related active substances have occurred (10,26,27). In addition, although drug use is prohibited in beekeeping for many years, illegal practices are still being carried out, which causes residual problems especially in bee products (28,29,30).…”