Propolis and bee health: the natural history and significance of resin use by honey bees

Abstract

-Social immunity, which describes how individual behaviors of group members effectively reduce disease and parasite transmission at the colony level, is an emerging field in social insect biology. An understudied, but significant behavioral disease resistance mechanism in honey bees is their collection and use of plant resins. Honey bees harvest resins with antimicrobial properties from various plant species and bring them back to the colony where they are then mixed with varying amounts of wax and utilized as propolis. Propolis is an apicultural term for the resins when used by bees within a hive. While numerous studies have investigated the chemical components of propolis that could be used to treat human diseases, there is a lack of information on the importance of propolis in regards to bee health. This review serves to provide a compilation of recent research concerning the behavior of bees in relation to resins and propolis, focusing more on the bees themselves and the potential evolutionary benefits of resin collection. Future research goals are also established in order to create a new focus within the literature on the natural history of resin use among the social insects and role that propolis plays in disease resistance.Apis mellifera / social immunity / antimicrobial defense / ecological immunity

Pathogen-associated self-medication behavior in the honeybee Apis mellifera

“…Not only ants use resin, also honeybees collect resin to prevent parasite infections and decrease parasite growth (Walker and Crane 1987;Simone et al 2009; reviewed in Simone-Finstrom and Spivak 2010). Exposure of honeybees to extracts from honeybee propolis (a mixture of resins and wax) led to a significantly lowered expression of two immunerelated genes (hymenoptaecin and AmEater) and lowered bacterial loads (Simone et al 2009).…”

Pharmacophagy and pharmacophory: mechanisms of self-medication and disease prevention in the honeybee colony (Apis mellifera)

“…Stingless bees (Meliponini) also process resin either as cerumen (mixed with wax) and batumen or geopropolis (mixed with wax, mud, seeds, wood or vertebrate faeces) (Roubik 2006). The chemical composition (with more than 300 chemical compounds in complex and varied mixtures), floral origin and verification, folk medicine usage and general characteristics of propolis are comprehensively summarized in various reviews (Bankova et al 2000Burdock 1998;Ghisalberti 1979;Greenaway et al 1990;Huang et al 2014;Marcucci 1995;Mizrahi and Lensky 1997;Simone-Finstrom and Spivak 2010;Walker and Crane 1987). The composition even from the same plant species can vary markedly even depending on the sex in sexually dimorphic plants with two-times higher activity of female plant resin (Lokvam and Braddock 1999).…”

Increased brood viability and longer lifespan of honeybees selected for propolis production

“…Even old worker bees can display normal olfactory and tactile acquisition and discrimination, although they have a slightly impaired long-term olfactory memory (Behrends and Scheiner 2010). Simone-Finstrom and Spivak (2010) reported that social immunity is a promising area of study in social insect biology. Among the behaviors controlled by colony needs, resin collection and production of propolis, which have antimicrobrial properties, reduce microbe levels in the honeybee colony and may help in disease resistance (Cremer and Sixt 2009;Simone et al 2009).…”