Stingless Bee Nest Cerumen and Propolis, Volume 2

Patricia Vit has studied Biology and MSc Food Science at Universidad Simon Bolivar, Caracas, Venezuela. She became Professor at Universidad de Los Andes in 1985, completed her PhD at Cardiff University, UK, visited the National University of Singapore, The University of Sydney, Australia, and Universidad Técnica de Machala, Ecuador. She supports the initiative Living Museum of Meliponini Bees in the World. Her research on pot-honey and SBH standards, expanded to cerumen and propolis structures of the nest. More than 100 papers and 34 books were published as an author or editor, including Pot-honey and Pot-Pollen. She received the Award Women in Science 2023, Health Science, from ACFIMAN, Caracas, Venezuela, and is a Council Member of the International Bee Research Association, UK.Vassya Bankova obtained her PhD in Natural Product Chemistry at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Sofia. In 2004 she became full professor at the Institute of Organic Chemistry with Centre of Phytochemistry, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. In her research she pays special attention to propolis - its chemical composition, plant origin, biological activity and standardization. Her total number of publications is over 220. She is a founding member of the Bulgarian Phytochemical Society. In 2015 she was elected to a corresponding member of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, and in 2020 a member of Academia Europea.Milena Popova obtained her Master's degree in chemistry and physics at Sofia University “Sv. Kliment Oxridski”; completed her PhD in natural product chemistry at the Institute of Organic Chemistry with Centre of Phytochemistry, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (IOCCP-BAS) in 2004, and became full professor at IOCCP-BAS in 2019. She was a postdoctoral researcher at University of Athens. Her research interests include chemical profiling, isolation and structural elucidation of bioactive compounds from natural products: endemic plants, propolis, mushrooms. She is a co-author of 100+ papers, cited over 3 800 times. She is a member of the Association for Medicinal and Aromatic Plants of Southeast Europe and Bulgarian Phytochemical Society, and is Head of the Laboratory “Chemistry of Natural Products” at IOCCP-BAS.David W Roubik, from the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Ancon, Panama, has written or edited 240 papers and 18 books about bee ecology, pollination and pollen, from worldwide tropical field work, co-editor of the Pot-honey and Pot-pollen books. It is timely to synthesize, record new data, and point out some of the most promising current information that, given time, will produce the same breadth and interest that the studies of Apis mellifera have produced. As I have pointed out, Apis contains 1/50th as many species, is present on ½ the land area (as a native) and is less than ½ the age of Meliponini, but it still holds public perception as “the bee”. This should be remedied.

• Part. I. Chemical composition of cerumen, plant resins and propolis.- Chapter. 1. Propolis of Vietnamese stingless bees: Chemistry and plant origin .- Chapter. 2. Extraction of Tetragonula laeviceps cerumen, its total phenolic content and antioxidant activity.- Chapter. 3. Scaptotrigona mexicana propolis use in pasture silage: 1. Inhibition of pathogenic microbes, and 2. Feeding effect on growth of lambs.- Chapter. 4. Metabolites from microbial cell factories in stingless bee nests.- Chapter. 5. Bibliometric landscaping of the yeast Starmerella (Ascomycota), a genus proposed in 1998.- Chapter. 6. Pot-honey, cerumen and propolis of  Axestotrigona ferruginea (Lepeletier, 1836) from Nigeria.- Chapter. 7. Volatile and sensory profile of cerumen, plant resin deposit, and propolis of a Tetragonisca angustula (Latreille, 1811) nest from Merida, Venezuela.- Part. II. Bioactivity of stingless bee cerumen, propolis and geopropolis.- Chapter. 8. Anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial and antioxidant activity of propolis and geopropolis produced by stingless bees.- Chapter. 9. Cerumen and propolis of an Indian stingless bee (Apidae: Meliponini) Tetragonula iridipennis (Smith, 1854): Botanical origin and biological activities.- Chapter. 10. Botanical origin, chemical composition, and bioactive properties of propolis of stingless bees from Argentina.- Chapter. 11. Chemical composition and therapeutic properties of geopropolis and propolis of stingless bees from Brazil: A review.- Chapter. 12. Diversity and biological activities of propolis of some Indonesian stingless bees.- Chapter. 13. Stingless bee propolis in pharmacology: Some applied cellular and molecular mechanisms.- Part III. Cultural uses and commercial products.- Chapter. 14. From Extraction to Meliponiculture? An Ethnobiological Synthesis of a Long-Standing Process in Argentina.- Chapter. 15. Production, resiniferous plants, chemistry, and therapeutical uses of Tetragonula biroi (Friese, 1898) propolis from the Philippines.- Part. IV. Sustainable stingless bee keeping and conservation.- Chapter. 16. Large-scale breeding of stingless bees: A plea for sustainable stingless bee keeping and native bee-plant-forest conservation in the Chaco region of Argentina.- Chapter. 17. Sustainable stingless bee keeping and conservation of bee-plant resources in Costa Rica.- Part. V. Marketing and standards of cerumen and propolis.- Chapter. 18. Marketing and standards of cerumen, resins, geopropolis and propolis from Brazilian stingless bees.- Appendix. A. List of Bee Taxa.- Appendix. B. Ethnic Names of Stingless Bees.- Appendix. C. Taxonomic Index of Plant Families.- Appendix. D. List of Plant Taxa Used by Bees.- Appendix E. Common Names of Plants Used by Bees.- Appendix. F. Chemical Substances of Beeswax, Cerumen and Propolis.- Appendix.G. Chemical Classes of Beeswax, Cerumen and Propolis Compounds.- Appendix. H. Microorganisms Associated with Stingless Bees or Used to Test Antimicrobial Activity, or Producing Metabolites in Materials of the Nest.- Index.

“The two volumes encompass 35 chapters, several of which are important topic reviews, while others are original studies including some bibliometric analyses of the literature on stingless bees. Each volume has about 150 pages of appendices, the one listing ethnic names for stingless bee species is especially helpful. … These volumes are brimming with useful information and interesting content … .” (Michael S. Engel, Entomologist’s Monthly Magazine, Vol. 161 (3), July, 2025)