Physicochemical and color characteristic of the Bawakaraeng Forest Honey, South Sulawesi

Honey is a thick liquid produced by bees consisting of natural sugars derived from flower nectar or plant secretions. The content of monosaccharides and fructose causes the sweetness of honey, and glucose compounds are naturally found in honey derived from the juices of food carried by bees. This study aims to determine physicochemical and color characteristics of forest honey from Bawakaraeng Mountain with the quality of honey obtained in accordance with the Indonesian National Standard. Characterization of the physicochemical quality of total sugar content was measured using a refractometer, acidity by pH meter, and color characteristics by Hunter Methods using chromameter instruments. In the results, color characterization of forest honey L* 22.28-22.46; a* 3.30-3.37; b* 4.74-4.87, L value indicates a lightness level that tends to be dark and a yellow-red chromatic color range (YR). Then water content is 21.06%, total sugar content is 49.53%, and pH 4. Finally, physicochemical and color characteristics analysis of forest honey needs to be studied more rapidly on the content of bioactive compounds and their benefits for health. The potential of forest honey from the Sinjai Regency is a new functional food that provides high antioxidant content value and rich nutrients.

Honey flora of forest plant community

The honey flora of the forest plant community is an important forage resource for the development of beekeeping. That’s why it is desirable to assess species composition and total number of honey plants and to determine the honey reserve of the area of the forest community plant. The forest cover of the Orel region is 9.3%, and this cover is distributed on its territory very irregularly. 257 species out of the total number of honey plants in the region are found in the forests. Deciduous forests are dominant in the Orel region including oak, ash, linden, birch and aspen. The results of studies of flowering plants in the forest plant community showed that there is a sufficient number of honey plants in the forest to provide bee families with nectar from spring to late autumn due to the natural flower-nectar conveyor. The assessment of the honey stock of this community shows that the stock equals 4,872 tons from 203 thousand hectares of forest. And bees can sip only about 30% (1,626 tons). It proves that significant honey reserves are concentrated in the forest plant community of the Orel region. The rational use of these reserves will help to solve the problem of reproduction of new bee families of the aboriginal Central Russian breed and to organize a long honey gathering by bees that provide people of the region with honey.

Nectar Microbial Diversity and Changes Associated with Environmental Exposure

Background: Plants are critical to global environmental health and food production strategies; most plants utilise flowers as part of their reproduction cycle. Flowers attract pollinators using a range of complex strategies and floral nectar is an essential component of this attraction profile. Nectar is a nutrient rich liquid, containing a range of sugars, organic acids, amino acids, lipids and vitamins, found to be a suitable habitat for a wide range of fungi, but so far, limited bacterial diversity has been detected. Several antimicrobial properties and adverse environmental conditions, such as high osmotic pressure present in the nectar were thought to reduce bacterial numbers.Results: This study reports the next generation sequencing analysis of the bacterial and fungal diversity in flower nectar. This was achieved in four floral species native to the United Kingdom (Lamium album, white dead nettle; Narcissus pseudonarcissus, daffodil, Hyacinthoides non-scripta, English bluebell and Digitalis purpurea, the common foxglove). All flower species examined had a diverse bacterial and fungal populations present with a core microbiome detected, dominated by Proteobacteria and Firmicutes phyla, while Basidomycota were the most persistent fungal phyla in all of the floral nectar types sampled. However, many unique bacterial and fungal species were detected at lower abundances. Furthermore, in N. pseudonarcissus and D. purpurea floral nectar, the microbial diversity detected in the nectar between flowers exposed to the environment versus non-environment exposed flowers, was different.Conclusions: These results suggest that floral nectars in different plant species do contain a distinct microbiome and the individual flower microbial community diversity may be affected by floral nectar composition, insect visitation and other environmental factors.

The Disguise of the Hummingbird: On the Natural History of Huitzilopochtli in the Florentine Codex

This essay explores the avian nature of Huitzilopochtli (“Hummingbird on the Left”), the tutelary god of the Mexica, by centering the deity’s association with the hummingbird. Arguing that there is a “natural history of Huitzilopochtli” deployed in book 11 of the Florentine Codex, devoted to “earthly things,” this analysis re-entangles hummingbird ethology with Huitzilopochtli’s cult, a bond that was severed in the early days of colonization. A close reading of the Nahuatl, Spanish, and visual texts in this book reveals that seasonal cycles and hummingbird behavior—energy budgeting, flower nectar diet, swift flight, and long-haul migration—can be interpreted as inspiring the three main feasts of Huitzilopochtli in the Mexica ritual year. Furthermore, reading the natural history entries in book 11 as related to the avian god illuminates how central hummingbirds were as markers of the dry and rainy seasons and their effects in Nahua social and ritual life.

Morphognostic Honey Bees Communicating Nectar Location Through Dance Movements

Honey bees are social insects that forage for flower nectar cooperatively. When an individual forager discovers a flower patch rich in nectar, it returns to the hive and performs a “dance” in the vicinity of other bees that consists of movements communicating the direction and distance to the nectar source. The bees that receive this information then fly to the location of the nectar to retrieve it, thus cooperatively exploiting the environment. This project simulates this behavior in a cellular automaton using the Morphognosis model. The model features hierarchical spatial and temporal contexts that output motor responses from sensory inputs. Given a set of bee foraging and dancing exemplars, and exposing only the external input-output of these behaviors to the Morphognosis learning algorithm, a hive of artificial bees can be generated that forage as their biological counterparts do.

Wybrane właściwości miodu szczególnie przydatne w kosmetologii

Honey is produced by bees (Apis mellifera) from flower nectar and insect secretions. Like other bee products it is used as an adjuvant for treatment of many diseases. It also finds its uses for producing cosmetics. The main components of honey include carbohydrates, which represent approximately 80% of the dry matter, and water. Monosaccharides, mainly fructose and glucose, constitute approximately 70% of the sugars, whilst the remaining saccharides are disaccharides and oligosaccharides. Moreover, honey consists vitamins, minerals, polyphenols, amino acids and enzymes. Beneficial effect of natural honey on human health has been known for a long time because of its biological and therapeutic properties. It is used to treat some cardiovascular and gastrointestinal diseases. Among the best-known properties of honey are its antibacterial, antifungal, antiviral and anti-inflammatory activities. Important is also its antioxidant activity, which could be useful for producing anti-aging cosmetics.

SOME RESULTS OF PHENOLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS OVER THE MAIN NECTARIFEROUS-POLLINIFEROUS PLANTS OF THE CHUVASH REPUBLIC

It has been proven that favorable prerequisites for the development of bee colonies and the production of high honey flow are created in cases when the apiary is fully surrounded by nectariferous lands (landscapes): forests, meadows, gardens, fields and forest belts with biodiversity of nectar-pollen flora, i.e. a continuous honey flow appears or a flower-nectar conveyor is created. During the phenological observations, beekeepers assured themselves that in order to clearly and fully utilize the nectar-pollen flora, it is necessary to have information from many years of research on the progression of the flowering of the presented plants, starting from early spring and ending in the fall at the end of the beekeeping season. Accurately compiled data of perennial phenological records and a calendar of flowering of entomophilous plants guarantee the beekeeper's opportunities to more rationally control their actions in doing the beekeeping business and improving the honey flow by including newly introduced plants in the flower conveyor that more completely fill the non-honey flow periods. It is safe to hope that, based on the analysis of regular perennial phenological records, each apiary beekeeper can predict the honey flow and make an adjustment to the technology of keeping and caring for the bee colonies. The beekeepers of the apiary of OOO Pchelovodcheskoe of the Kravsnoarmeysky district of the Chuvash Republic have become convinced that by knowing the beginning and end of the full flowering of nectariferous-polliniferous plants, its duration can be determined. Depending on the strength of the honey flow, there are: a no honey flow period, when the bee colony on the control weights shows a decrease in the total mass; supporting honey flow, when the scales show from 0 to 0.6 kg of profit, while the honey in bee colonies does not increase in the direction of profit and does not accumulate in an amount sufficient for pumping the marketable honey; productive honey flow, when reference scales show from 1 kg or more of nectar profit per day. In this case, the amount of ripe honey in colonies will be sufficient for selection and pumping. It should be noted that the main honey flow is the strongest productive honey flow when from each main wintering colony, full unopened honeycomb frames from several honey chambers or shells are pumped out, which is the eventual result of the economic efficiency of the apiary. Analysis of the results of phenological observations allows us to note the shift of the period of the beginning and the end of flowering in other plant species. It should be noted that in both 2017 and 2018, the species composition of the flora in the investigated area has blossomed continuously, ending in August and September: in European goldenrod (Solidago virgaurea) - 01/09/2017 and 28/08/2018; in common globe thistle (Echinops sphaerocephalus) - 09/05/2017 and 08/20/2018.