Characteristic study for identification of honey bees and screening of its bee bread for therapeutic property

The variability of basic features of two different honey bee species was investigated and identified by characteristic study. To identify honey bees, the colonies were observed for one year,from Dec 2019–2020 till honey harvesting from Nilackal Bee Garden, Pathanamthitta, Kerala, India. The present study resulted in a clear identification of honey bee species as Apis cerana and Trigona iridipennis on the basis of behavior patterns, production of honey etc. We have collected and analyzed the hive product,bee bread of both species for screening and comparing its anti-oxidant property. Bee bread is nourishing tonic made from pollen by honey bees, to which they add honey and digestive enzymes, after anaerobic fermentation it stored in their combs. The main objective of this research was to compare antioxidant activity of bee bread of identified species of honey bees, Trigona iridipennis and Apis cerana were subjected to standard methods to assess therapeutic property. The antioxidant activity of the sample extracts were determined by spectrophotometer analysis. The radical scavenging activity in bee bread samples varied from 38.46 to 78.4% in the DPPH reaction system. The results showed that Apis cerana bee bread ethanol extracts have maximum average free radical scavenging activity. There is no free radical scavenging activity in Trigona bee bread sample. Statistically maximum value for free radical scavenging activity was obtained in Apis cerana samples.