نشریه علوم و فنون زنبور عسل ایران
پیاپی 27 (پاییز و زمستان 1402)

In the topic of honey authenticity, in addition to the plant origin and geographical area of honey production, honey adulteration affects its sucrose content in different ways. The origin of sucrose in adulterated honey can include sucrose additives, artificial feeding of bees with sucrose, or immature honey harvesting. In addition to the many natural factors that cause diversity in honey and its physicochemical properties, the many factors and methods of honey fraud have also caused that it is not possible to determine the quality of honey based only on a few factors such as sucrose. Considering the large number of these influencing factors, it is better to use statistical multivariate methods such as principal component analysis (PCA) to distinguish and evaluate the authenticity of honey. This method can reduce the amount of statistical data. Finally, the results obtained from PCA with variance analysis of variables and data can be used to identify data patterns, categorize and measure the authenticity of honey.

While the survival rate has increased due to treatments for breast cancer, the quality of life has decreased because of the side effects of chemotherapy. Various toxins are being developed as alternative breast cancer treatments, and bee venom is drawing attention as one of them. We analyzed the effect of bee venom and its components on breast cancer cells and reviewed the mechanism underlying the anticancer effects of bee venom. Data up to March 2022 were searched from PubMed, EMBASE, OASIS, KISS, and Science Direct online databases, and studies that met the inclusion criteria were reviewed. Among 612 studies, 11 were selected for this research. Diverse drugs were administered, including crude bee venom, melittin, phospholipase A2, and their complexes. All drugs reduced the number of breast cancer cells in proportion to the dose and time. The mechanisms of anticancer effects included cytotoxicity, apoptosis, cell targeting, gene expression regulation, and cell lysis. Summarily, bee venom and its components exert anticancer effects on human breast cancer cells. Depending on the mechanisms of anticancer effects, side effects are expected to be reduced by using various vehicles. Bee venom and its components have the potential to prevent and treat breast cancer in the future.

Organic honey is a product in which no unnatural pesticides, bioengineered genes or other synthetic products have been used in its preparation and storage, In this research, using the descriptive-analytical method, the influencing factors on the willingness to pay for organic honey in Zahedan city have been investigated using Heckman's two-stage Tobit model. According to the size of the population, a sample size of 384 people has been selected using Cochran's formula. The results show that that with an increase of one unit in the variables of education level, household income, organic badge and certificate, the level of access to organic honey, increased awareness and study of the product and satisfaction with the way organic honey is distributed, willingness to pay for organic honey the order will increase by 0.09, 0.33, 0.08, 0.16, 0.1 and 0.06 units, while the price of organic honey has a negative and significant effect on the willingness to pay for organic honey according to theoretical expectations. So that with one unit increase in product price, the willingness to pay will decrease by -0.17 units. In this regard, it is suggested that the honey producers take the first step to obtain the organic honey mark and certificate, and in the second step, it is necessary to improve its accessibility and distribution method by using the correct distribution methods, and finally by using social media and virtual space should promote people's awareness about the use of organic honey.

The living environment of the honey bee is a suitable place for all kinds of pests and diseases to live. Also, the presence of honey, wax, larvae, pupae, and a large number of bees in a dark space and some other things, including desirable temperature and humidity inside the hive, has attracted all kinds of pests and diseases. Varroa mite is the main obstacle to the survival of bee colonies. If you do not control it, it can cause the collapse of bee colonies in a few years. Varroa mite control is essential to maintain bee colonies in most beekeeping areas around the world. Beekeepers routinely use chemical treatments to control this mite. Nowadays, excessive use of chemical pesticides and incorrect management has led to widespread resistance in Varroa mite populations and the residual of these pesticides in beehive products. However, beekeepers usually use more chemical pesticides to control this parasite. Today, researchers are trying to find safer ways to control Varroa mites. Honey bee Specialists and international researchers have introduced several plant compounds as suitable alternatives to chemical pesticides in controlling Varroa mites. Therefore, the most important plants used in honey bee colonies to control Varroa mite have been introduced in this review.

Unlike many organisms, insects, especially honey bees, have hard cuticles, which makes it difficult to extract DNA from them. The optimized general protocols for extracting DNA from plant tissues and blood are mostly used for extracting DNA from honey bees (Apis mellifera) and other species of the Apis genus. In these conditions, the extracted DNA is mostly of very low quality and has high protein and RNA contamination, which causes many problems during amplification in the polymerase chain reaction and subsequent stages of analysis. Considering the importance of DNA quality, the different results of the protocols used to extract DNA from honey bees in different laboratories, and the necessity of molecular research on Iranian honey bees, we will present the sampling method, the number of honey bee samples required, the storage conditions of the samples, Steps of the optimized protocol for extracting DNA from Iranian honey bees, and the methods for the quantity and quality of the extracted DNA in this article.

The colony collapse disorder phenomenon has been a threat to beekeeping in different regions of the world in recent years. Considering that there is still no consensus on the risk factors of bee colony collapse, this study utilized Analytical Hierarchy process method to identify and rank the important factors. In order to achieve this objective, a questionnaire was created based on the risk factors that result in colony collapse and was filled out by 29 beekeeping experts. The data was analyzed using Expert Choice software. According to the results, management factors were the most important influencing factors in the colony collapse disorder phenomenon, while environmental and pathogenic factors were equally important. Among the options, the queen's weakness with a relative weight of 0.144, malnutrition with 0.138, and the use of acaricides in the hive with a weight of 0.135 were the most important influencing factors in the CCD phenomenon. On the contrary, the contamination of the colonies with myiasis and the small hive beetle with a weight of 0.003 were of the least importance in this phenomenon. Our findings showed that management factors had the most significant effect in the CCD phenomenon, therefore, it is recommended to modify or improve management methods in the apiaries.