🍯 Bee Products

1. Honey

• A sweet, viscous fluid - Produced by honeybees.
• Collected as nectar from nectaries at base of flower.
• Also collected from extra floral nectaries (nectar secreted by parts other than flowers).
• Collected also from fruit juice, cane juice.
• About 2 million flowers must be visited to make half kg of honey.
• Bee draws nectar by its tongue (proboscis).
• Collected by hive bees - Deposited in cells in comb.
• Honey is very nutritious and have many medicinal property.
• Used in India since ancient times. Used in Ayurveda.

Ripening of Honey

• Nectar contains 20-40% sucrose whereas fully ripened honey contains < 2% sucrose.
• Sucrose (disaccharide) in nectar is converted by enzyme invertase to Glucose (dextrose) and Fructose (Levulose) (which are monosaccharides), to form honey.
• Invertase is present in nectar itself and in saliva of honey.

  

• Ripening of honey is by action of enzyme and by evaporation of water by fanning of wings.
• Unripe honey is processed artificially by indirect heating to 145-160 °F for 30 minutes.

Properties of Honey

• Percentage of sugar in honey is 78 %.
• According to FSSAI what can be the maximum sucrose content in honey is 5%.
• Honey containing more than 20% moisture at raw stage is not considered pure. Because honey with a high moisture content has a thin texture and eventually tastes sour as a moisture level of 20% or more will ferment into alcohol.
• Vitamin E is not present in honey.
• Honey of little bee, Apis florea has high content of dextrins and is of medicinal importance.
• An antioxidant called pinocembrin is found in honey.
• Below 14°C dextrose of honey gets granulated.
• pH range of honey is 3.4 to 6.1 i.e. acidic in nature.
• Test for invert sugar is done by Resorcinol and Aniline Chloride Test.

Purity test for honey

• Measure specific gravity of honey using hydrometer.
• If the specific gravity is between 1.25 - 1.44 g/cc it is pure honey

2. Bees Wax

• Wax glands are present in worker honey bees in the sternum of segment no. 4, 5, 6 and 7.
• Bee wax is Myristyl Palmitate.
• 20 Kg of honey is consumed by honey bees to produce 1 kg of wax.
• Rock bee, Apis dorsata yields more bee wax.
• It is valuable, used in candle, pharmaceutical and cosmetic industry.

3. Royal Jelly

• Hypopharyngeal glands of workers secrete royal jelly.
• Royal jelly contains vitamins like panthothenic acid.
• Nutritious, increase vigor and vitality/fertility.

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4. Bee Venom

• Sting of honeybee is modified ovipositor.
• Bee venom produced is formic acid. An alkaine gland, Dufour’s gland also opens at the base of the sting.
• Bee venom is used to cure rheumatism. Treatment known as Apitherapy.
• Specific odour of the colony is due to the secretion of Vasnov’s gland present in the last abdominal segment of workers.

5. Propolis

• Propolis is a resinous substance collected by bees from resinous exudates of trees and leaves used for sealing cracks and unwanted spaces in the hive.
• It is used as gum.

6. Pollen

• Collects pollen by passing flower to flower. Pollen sticking to body removed.
• Using pollen comb - Packed using pollen press into corbicula.
• A single bee carries 10-30 mg pollen (25% of bee’s wt)
• Dislodge by middle log into cell.
• Mix with honey and store.
• It is considered as Super Food.

- https://nbb.gov.in/
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bee
- The Insects - Structure and Function (4th Edition, 1998) – R.F. Chapman. Cambridge University Press
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apiary
- https://agritech.tnau.ac.in/farm_enterprises/fe_api_typesofhoneybee.html