Stingless Bee Honey Shows High Antibacterial Activity

Ecuadorian Stingless Bee (Meliponinae) Honey: A Chemical and Functional Profile of an Ancient Health Product
Food Chemistry, Volume 114, Issue 4, 15 June 2009, Pages 1413-1420

Stingless bee honey samples from west Amazonian Ecuador were studied for their physiochemical, chemical and functional properties…

All these results were compared with those acquired for two multifloral Apis mellifera honeys. DPPH and β-carotene bleaching tests were performed, showing interesting values for Ecuadorian honey samples, higher than those shown by multifloral A. mellifera honeys (88.1 ± 11.1 DPPH inhibition%; 70.8 ± 8.90 β-carotene inhibition%).

Antibacterial activity, against both Gram positive and Gram negative bacteria, revealed MIC values (10–50 μg/ml) always lower than those of A. mellifera honeys. Ecuadorian Meliponinae honey samples also showed anti-mutagenic activity assayed with Saccharomyces cerevisiae D7 strain, inhibiting back mutation over the entire range of concentrations.