Department of Chemistry, State University of Midwest (UNICENTRO), Guarapuava, Parana, Brazil.
Proteomics and Metabolomics Facility, Faculty of Medicine, Hammersmith Hospital Campus, Imperial College London, United Kingdom.
Food Res Int. 2023 May;167:112640. doi: 10.1016/j.foodres.2023.112640. Epub 2023 Feb 24.
Stingless bees (Meliponini) represent over than 500 species, found in tropical and sub-tropical regions of the world. They produce geopropolis, a resinous natural product containing bioactive compounds, which is commonly used in folk medicine. In the current study, LC-HRMS and bioinformatic tools were used to carry out for the first time the lipidomic analysis of geopropolis from indigenous Brazilian stingless bees. As a result, 61 compounds of several lipid classes were identified with elevated degree of confidence. Then, we demonstrated that lipids in geopropolis are not restricted to waxes and fatty acids; but fatty amides and amines, phenolic lipids, resorcinols, retinoids, abietanoids, diterpenoids, pentacyclic triterpenoids, prostaglandins, retinoids, and steroids were found. In addition, multivariate analysis, based on the lipidomic profile of extracts, reinforces the assumption that the species of stingless bees, as well as the geographical origin are relevant factors to affect geopropolis composition once that the lipidic profile allowed the discrimination of geopropolis in groups related to the geographical origin, bee specie or bee genus. The lipidic profile also suggest a selective forage habits of T. angustula, which seems to collect resins from more specific vegetal sources regardless geographic origin, while other stingless bees, such as M. marginata and M. quadrifasciata, are less selective and may adapt to collect resins from a wider variety of plants.
无刺蜜蜂（Meliponini）代表了超过 500 个物种，分布在世界的热带和亚热带地区。它们产生的蜂胶是一种树脂状的天然产物，含有生物活性化合物，常用于民间医学。在目前的研究中，LC-HRMS 和生物信息学工具首次用于对巴西本土无刺蜜蜂的蜂胶进行脂质组学分析。结果，确定了 61 种具有不同脂质类别的化合物，置信度较高。然后，我们证明了蜂胶中的脂质不仅限于蜡质和脂肪酸；还发现了脂肪酸酰胺和胺、酚类脂质、间苯二酚、类视黄醇、松香烷、二萜、五环三萜、前列腺素、类视黄醇和甾体。此外，基于提取物的脂质组学分析的多元分析，进一步证实了蜜蜂的种类以及地理起源是影响蜂胶组成的相关因素，因为脂质组学图谱允许根据与地理起源、蜜蜂种类或属相关的组来区分蜂胶。脂质组学图谱还表明，T. angustula 具有选择性的觅食习惯，它似乎从更特定的植物来源收集树脂，而其他无刺蜜蜂，如 M. marginata 和 M. quadrifasciata，则不太具有选择性，可能会从更多种类的植物中收集树脂。
