The effects of piperine supplementation on colony population, body weight after emerging, viability and vitellogenin gene expression in honey bees under heat stress

This study was done to evaluate the effects of piperine (phytogenic material in pepper) supplementation on antioxidant capacity, vitellogenin gene expression, the viability and body weight of honey bees at the time of emerging.

32 bee hives were divided to 4 treatment groups and 8 replications in a completely random design. The environment temperature of region was 38 degrees Celsius for at least 4 hours per day. The control group received syrup without piperine, and the treatment groups received syrup containing 2000, 4000 and 6000 μg of piperine per liter, respectively. The level of malondialdehyde and antioxidant capacity of the body, weight and body composition of bees after emerging, colony population and relative expression of vitellogenin gene were determined.

Supplementation of 2000 and 4000 μg piperine per liter of syrup caused an increase in body weight, a decrease in the level of malondialdehyde and increase in antioxidant capacity. The addition of piperine in different doses caused a significant increase in vitellogenin gene expression compared to the control group. The spawning level and colony population that received 6000 μg/liter piperine was lower than the group that received 2000 and 4000 μg/liter P<0.05).

Based on the results, supplementation of 2000 to 4000 μg/liter of piperine has a positive effect on increasing the antioxidant capacity, vitellogenin gene expression, body weight of new-emerged bees and colony population, and a higher dose causes a decrease in spawning rate and reduction of honey bee population.