M Sc

The research work entitled “Quantification and characterization of Indian honey bee (Apiscerana indica Fab.) venom” was carried out at College of Agriculture, Vellayani during the year 2019 to 2021. The objective of the study was quantification and characterization of Indian honey bee venom during different seasons.
Hives of uniform bee strength maintained in the apiary of AICRP on Honey Bees & Pollinators were selected to identify the peak hour of the day at which maximum bee venom can be collected from a hive using a bee venom collector. Venom was collected from hives at different hours starting from 6 am to 6 pm for three days. The optimum duration at which maximum venom can be collected from the hive with minimum damage to the bees were also assessed. Venom was collected for three different durations viz., 30 minutes, 40 minutes and 60 minutes and the quantity of venom collected and mortality was recorded. Seasonal variation was assessed by collecting venom at the peak hour and optimum duration on all the three seasons viz, brood rearing (September - December), honey flow (January - April) and dearth (May-August). The brood parameters and foraging activity of the hives were also assessed at weekly intervals for a period of one month in order to determine whether the bee venom collection has any impact on these parameters. The venom collected during the three seasons were subjected to characterisation and the proportion of components present in the venom were analysed. Control hives were maintained and the data were subjected to ANOVA and paired t test analysis.
Observations on the venom collection at hourly intervals of a day revealed that maximum quantity of venom was collected at 2 pm to 3 pm (52.00 mg per hive) and least venom was collected at 7 am to 8 am. Statistical analysis of the data on optimum duration for venom collection showed that highest quantity of venom was collected at 60 minutes duration (55.34 mg per hive), but the mean mortality was high (5.20 bees per hive). Venom collected at 40 minutes and 30 minutes were 34.14 mg and 25.12 mg per hive which were on par. The optimum duration for placing the bee venom collector was selected as 30 minutes considering the low mortality of bees (0.80 per hive) as compared to 40 minutes (2.00 per hive). Significant variation was not observed in the brood parameters as well as in the foraging activity of the venom collected and control
hives.
Studies on the seasonal variation in bee venom collected revealed that maximum quantity of venom was collected at honey flow season (55.16 mg per high) followed by dearth season (41.00 mg) and brood rearing season (25.12 mg). Maximum mortality was also recorded at honey flow season followed by dearth season and brood rearing season. Brood parameters as well as the foraging activity of the bees did not vary significantly among the seasons. The quantity of bee venom collected had a non-significant positive correlation with temperature and negative correlation with humidity.
The characterisation of bee venom samples collected during the three seasons were carried out at SAIF, IIT Bombay by HR LC-MS (High Resolution Liquid Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry) with database (Plant extract Impurity Profiling and Metabolite Identification). Melittin and apamin were identified as the major components, with melittin showing maximum abundance on all the three seasons. No significant difference was recorded in the abundance of both melittin and apamin among the three seasons.
Thus, in the present study, highest quantity of bee venom was collected at 2 pm to 3 pm (52.00 mg per hive) and the optimum duration for collection was 30 minutes, considering the bee mortality factors. Studies on the seasonal variation revealed that significantly high bee venom was collected during the honey flow season (55.16 mg per hive), while no significant variation was observed in the brood parameters among the seasons. Characterisation of the bee venom revealed that melittin and apamin were the major components, of which melittin was 8.5 times abundant than that of apamin with no significant variation among the seasons.

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