Scientists identify the beetle that triggers production of red propolis in Brazil

Jairo Kenupp Bastos first heard about the insect while visiting Canavieiras on the south coast of Bahia, a state in the Northeast of Brazil. "Local beekeepers told me about a tiny beetle that made holes in a plant called Dalbergia ecastaphyllum [Coinvine], a member of the pea family, and that the holes leaked a resin used by bees to make red propolis," said Bastos, a professor of pharmacognosy (the study of drugs isolated from natural sources, such as plants, animals and minerals) at the University of São Paulo's Ribeirão Preto School of Pharmaceutical Sciences (FCFRP-USP) in Brazil. Honey bees (Apis mellifera) harvest the resin and blend it with wax, pollen and enzymes to make red propolis, the second most widely produced and marketed type of propolis in Brazil. Its ...