Native bees make a healthy honey no others make, and now we know how

It is not made by any other bee and is better for you, and now scientists know how native stingless bees make healthy honey. 

Researchers at the University of Queensland in collaboration with Queensland Health Forensic and Scientific Services have uncovered the secret of trehalulose — a sugar that is only produced by the tiny insect and does not spike blood glucose levels when eaten. 

Nectar sugars are largely glucose, fructose, and table sugar (sucrose), not trehalulose, so the question became "were the bees finding it or making it?"

"We fed stingless bees some sugar solutions to try and find out the origin of trehalulose," UQ organic chemist and research leader Dr Natasha Hungerford said.

"Then we took two different solutions and fed them to a small colony of bees that were confined for a short amount of time, 24 hours, and we fed them sucrose or table sugar.

"So there's no sucrose left, which was pretty remarkable, really."

Because of the unique way the native insect stores its honey — in small pots made from a mix of beeswax and tree resins — the researchers looked at a number of potential sources for the special sugar, like native trees and other things in the environment.

"What we found is that stingless bees have a unique capacity to convert sucrose to trehalulose and produce honey rich in trehalulose in their gut," Dr Hungerford said. 

Feeding the bees glucose and fructose did not produce the same result, allowing the researchers to narrow in on sucrose. 

"What this tells us then is that if the bees are sourcing nectar that ties in sucrose from the environment, then they'll produce the honey that's high in trehalulose with the added health benefits," Dr Hungerford said.

"Stingless bees are unique in that they they're the only creatures that we know that produce it in a food."

Going with their gut

Stingless bees are found throughout tropical and subtropical parts of the world, but produce significantly less honey than the larger European honey bees that provide the bulk of the product on supermarket shelves. 

Their honey is highly prized as a specialty food, is considered medicinal in Indigenous cultures, and attracts a high price.

"In warmer climates, they tend to produce excess honey, whereas in cooler areas they might only produce what they need for themselves."

Dr Hungerford said the syrup produced in the experiment is not considered honey because it did not come from nectar.

"The honey we produced in the lab is, in fact, fake honey, and we were able to distinguish it from natural honey by isotopic testing," she said.

"This trehalulose-rich syrup that was produced might be considered a potential secondary product of stingless bees, but it is not honey.

"It is also not good for the health of the hive to feed the bees only table sugar."

Hunt for high sucrose crops

The hunt is now on to identify what crops produce nectar high in sucrose to offer apiarists a way to increase production.

"Potentially if they're being used to pollinate crops, where there's less variation in flora around, but we're looking at the nectar to see what sort of levels there are," Dr Hungerford said. 

Native plants such as Grevillea and Banksia are believed to have nectar high in sucrose, and researchers will also investigate if macadamia, lychee, and avocado crops increase the levels of trehalulose in the honey, which could make it even more valuable.

"Stingless bee honey is fairly rare, people quite often consume their own supplies," Dr Hungerford said.

"There are some people that sell it and it does get quite a high price. It's usually sought after by high-end restaurants as a unique flavour to add to their dishes.

"The flavour of stingless bee honey is sought after because it's quite tangy and has a citrus note as well."

The research was published in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry.