Diversity and honey properties of stingless bees from meliponiculture in East and North Kalimantan, Indonesia

Abstract

Abstract. Syafrizal, Ramadhan R, Kusuma IW, Egra S, Shimizu K, Kanzaki M, Arung ET. 2020. Diversity and honey properties of stingless bees from meliponiculture in East and North Kalimantan, Indonesia. Biodiversitas 21: 4623-4630. Kalimantan Island in Indonesia is covered by tropical rain forests that are rich in biodiversity. Species, include a stingless bee (Trigona spp.). Recently, stingless bee beekeeping (Meliponiculture) in this region has become popular because the honey has a unique taste, a mix of sweet, sour, and bitter which is highly valued. The objective of this study was to determine the diversity of stingless bee species, the number of colonies, type of hive, and honey properties such as taste, acidity, color, phytochemicals, and radical scavenging activity or antioxidant in meliponiculture in selected areas of Eastern and Northern Kalimantan, Indonesia. The area studied included Samarinda, Balikpapan, Penajam, Bontang, Sangatta, and Tarakan. The study conducted by visiting the farmers, collecting the stingless bees species and bee products (honey, propolis, and bee pollen), pH, color and taste determination, phytochemical screening, and DPPH assay. We found 12 species, with Heterotrigona itama and Tetragonula laeviceps being the main ones cultivated by people in all research areas, except Balikpapan. We counted 111 colonies of T. laeviceps and 99 of H. itama in the meliponiculture. There were three types of hive used by farmers in meliponiculture. Most of the honey tasted sweet and sour with acidity or pH ranging from 3-4, and color from dark brown to light yellow. The phytochemicals contained tannin, alkaloid, flavonoid, triterpenoid, carotenoid, coumarin, saponin, and carbohydrate. The Tetragonula sarawakensis honey was the most potent in term radical scavengers. Our findings showed that stingless bee honey contains antioxidants with phytochemicals that are very useful for human health.

Phytochemical screening and antioxidant activity of wild mushrooms growing in tropical regions

“…A phytochemical test was used to screen for the presence of flavonoids, alkaloids, terpenoids, tannins, steroids, saponins, phenolics, carotenoids, coumarin and carbohydrates. Screening tests for these major phytochemicals were carried out using standard qualitative procedures, as described in Syafrizal et al (2020), as follows:…”

Morfologi dan variasi morfometrik stingless bees di Kepulauan Maluku, Indonesia

“…Panjang tubuh lebah tanpa sengat tersebut dapat menjadi salah satu cara sederhana dalam memilih spesies yang akan dibudidayakan (meliponikultur). Ukuran panjang tubuh lebah tanpa sengat yang besar dapat meningkatkan jumlah produksi madu yang dihasilkan, seperti H. itama yang menghasilkan jumlah produksi madu, propolis, dan polen lebih banyak daripada T. laeviceps (Priawandiputra et al 2020;Syafrizal et al 2020). Perlu penelitian lebih lanjut mengenai hubungan antara karakter morfologi dan morfometrik terhadap parameter meliponikultur.…”

Antioxidant and antibacterial screening of honey of Hiterotrogona itama collected from differents meliponiculture areas in East Kalimantan, Indonesia

“…The antioxidant activity values of IC50 and the original concentration of H. itama honey was 43.54 ppm (Karya Merdeka), 59.91 ppm (Tanah Merah), <25 ppm (Penajam), 61.35 ppm (Buana Jaya) and 71.27 ppm (Saing Prupuk). Syafrizal et al (2020) stated that H. itama from Tanah Merah has flavonoid, coumarin, saponin, tannins, alkaloids and carbohydrates compounds and the origin of Tarakan is only saponin compounds that are not present in the honey.…”

“…Likewise, Chua et al (2013) that phenolic and flavonoids found in honey are compounds that play an essential role as antioxidants. Tuksithaa et al (2018) reported that H. itama honey collected from Serawak has 47.40% inhibition, a high category. Shamsudin et al (2019a) suggested that H. itama's antioxidant activity was good for human health.…”

“…Both H. itama from Samarinda and Tarakan has no triterpenoid, steroid and carotenoid compounds. H. itama from Samarinda and Tarakan have antioxidant activity (Syafrizal et al 2020).…”