Scientists have identified a bug that starts the production of red propolis in Brazil

Jairo Kenup Bastos first heard of the insect during a visit to Canavieiras on the southern coast of Bahia, a state in northeastern Brazil. “Local beekeepers told me about a little bug that made holes in a plant called Dalbergia ecastaphillum [Coinvine]a member of the pea family, and that the resin used by bees to make red propolis leaked from the holes, “said Bastos, a professor of pharmacognosy (studying drugs isolated from natural sources such as plants, animals and minerals) at Ribeirao Preto University’s Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences. in Sao Paulo (FCFRP-USP) in Brazil.

Honey bees (Apis mellifera) collect resin and mix it with wax, pollen and enzymes to make red propolis, another type of propolis most commonly produced and sold in Brazil. Its red color comes from the resin. It has antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and antitumor properties.

To understand more about the process, Bastos took several beetle larvae to the Sao Paulo Zoological Museum, where he was told that adult specimens were needed for the insect to be properly identified. He invited dr. candidate Letizia Migliore to carry out a mission by going to a village outside Canavieiras in search of a plant with its beetles. With her was Gianfranco Curletti, an entomologist from the Civic Museum of Natural History in Carmagnola, Italy; Gary Ccana-Ccapatinta, postdoctoral fellow at FCFRP-USP; and Jean Carvalho, a biologist and beekeeper living in Canavieiras.

“The beetle is very small, so it was not an easy task, but we managed to collect several males and females, which were fixed in ethanol at 70 percent and taken to the museum, where they were analyzed under a microscope.” we discovered this new species in the family Buprestidae, which was named Agrilus propolis, “Migliore recalls.

Curleti, Gabriel Biffi and Sonia Casari, head of the Coleoptera Museum Laboratory and Migliore’s supervisor, also took part.

“Simultaneously with this, a phytochemical analysis was performed in the Pharmacognosy laboratory [at FCFRP-USP] to confirm that resin and propolis had the same chemical composition, which proves their botanical origin and shows that this new species of beetle contributes to the production of the drug substance, “said Ccana-Ccapatinta, who is a member of Bastos’ team.

Transformation

The combined research of the two groups offers an overview of the process. Beetle larvae develop inside the stems of D. ecastaphillum, and upon reaching maturity they emerge through holes, together with a resinous exudate.

The researchers’ findings are cited in an article published in The science of nature.

“The article is extremely important because it shows that the agent that encourages the host plant to produce the key ingredient red propolis has finally been identified. So far we have not had information on the type of insects that could be behind this phenomenon,” Kazari said. basis for further research on the production of red propolis, which is expensive to sell and therefore has economic significance. A kilogram was worth $ 150 on the market in 2019, when the research was done.