Abstract
To the best of our knowledge, this paper presents the first report on the microbial status of wild bees (A. dorsata and A. florea) honey collected from different northern states of India. In total, 17 bacterial morphotypes (9 from A. dorsata and 8 from A. florea) were recovered. The bacterial load (log CFU/g) was observed to be maximum (4.01) in A. dorsata honey from Sirmour-Puruwala whereas, lowest load (3.49) was recorded in Punjab-Rupnagar honey. Likewise, A. florea honey from Sirmour-Kala Amb and Punjab-Doraha were recorded with maximum and minimum bacterial loads of 4.17 and 3.40, respectively. Observance of lower bacterial load than hazardous limit ensured its safety for human consumption. Three most dominant bacteria viz., AD1, HF7 and AF4 were identified as Micrococcus endophyticus (MT938911), Bacillus subtilis subsp. stercoris (MT764923) and Bacillus pumilus (MT764923), respectively through 16S rRNA ribotyping. Moreover, the inhibitory activity of honey was good to excellent against Salmonella typhi NCTC 786 and fair to good against Bacillus subtilis ATCC 6633, Pseudomonas aeruginosa ATCC 10662 and Klebsiella pneumoniae ATCC 13883. The Escherichia coli ATCC 1041 was the most sensitive bacterium among all. These results justify wild bees honey as a natural remedy for curing and preventing numerous human ailments.
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Availability of data and material/ Data availability (data transparency, if link please provide the link to access. For further information, go to—https://www.springernature.com/gp/authors/research-data-policy/data-availability-statements/12330880): The sequence data of isolated microflora is available in the nucleotide data base of NCBI, GenBank, USA (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov).
Abbreviations
- viz., :
-
Videlicet
- F:
-
Fermentative
- K:
-
Alkaline
- A:
-
Acidic
- CFU:
-
Colony forming unit
- OF:
-
Oxidative Fermentation
- Su:
-
Sucrose
- Distt.:
-
District
- Mn:
-
Mannose
- H.P.:
-
Himachal Pradesh
- Ma:
-
Mannitol
- Sb:
-
Sorbitol
- Ce:
-
Cellubiose
- Xy:
-
Xylose
- NA:
-
Nutrient Agar
- NCBI:
-
National Centre for Biotechnology Information
- PDA:
-
Potato Dextrose Agar
- Subsp.:
-
Subspecies
- Log:
-
Logarithm
- MR:
-
Methyl Red
- ZDI:
-
Zone Diameter of Inhibition
- VP:
-
Vogues Proskauer
- TSI:
-
Triple Sugar Iron
- DMSO:
-
Dimethyl sulfoxide
- Pvt.:
-
Private
- Ltd.:
-
Limited
- MEGA:
-
Molecular Evolutionary Genetics Analysis
- OPSTAT:
-
Operational Statistics
- ANOVA:
-
Analysis of Variance
- MIC:
-
Minimum Inhibitory Concentration
- ND:
-
Not Detected
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Acknowledgements
The authors acknowledge the generous assistance and support provided by the Central Potato Research Institute, Plant Protection Division, and All India Coordinated Research Project on Honey Bees and Pollinators in completing the study.
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The funds were provided by All India Coordinated Research Project on Honey bees and Pollinators.
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Thakur, B., Devi, S., Thakur, M. et al. Unraveling the microbial status of wild bee’s honey from North India. Biologia (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11756-024-01655-z
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11756-024-01655-z