Affiliation:
1. Graduate Program in Biological Chemistry – PPQB at the Regional University of Cariri – URCA Crato Ceará Brazil
2. Graduate Program in Biological Sciences – PPGCB of the Federal University of Pernambuco – UFPE Recife Pernambuco Brazil
3. Semi-arid Bioprospecting Laboratory and Alternative Methods – LABSEMA of the Regional University of Cariri – URCA Crato Ceará Brazil
4. Graduate Program in Animal Bioscience Federal Rural University of Pernambuco – UFRPE Recife Pernambuco Brazil
5. Vale do Acaraú State University – UVA Sobral Ceará Brazil
Abstract
AbstractTetragonisca angustula (Latreille, 1811) is an indigenous neotropical stingless bee, popularly known as “Jataí”, with a wide distribution in the Brazilian territory. T. angustula produces other derivatives such as propolis, geopropolis, fermented (saburá pollen), cerumen and resins, which are important in folk medicine. In this review, the objective was to gather research on the main plant species visited by T. angustula, as well as studies that verified the chemical composition and biological properties of T. angustula bioproducts. The bibliographic review was performed by searching the Scopus, Web of Science, ScienceDirect, and PubMed databases for publications from 2003 to February 2023. We found 78 studies that analyzed the interactions between T. angustula and floral species, with species from the botanical families Fabaceae, Asteraceae, Malvaceae, Bignoniaceae, Solanaceae, Myrtaceae and Lamiaceae being the most reported as the main food sources for this species. The presence of compounds belonging to the class of flavonoids, phenolic acids, terpenoids and alkaloids has been identified by studying the chemical composition of honey, propolis, geopropolis and fermented pollen (saburá) in 21 studies. The data collected in the literature emphasize that these T. angustula products have remarkable biological properties, especially their antibacterial and antioxidant activities.
Subject
Molecular Biology,Molecular Medicine,General Chemistry,Biochemistry,General Medicine,Bioengineering