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Determination of the optimal conditions of an apitoxin extractor in bees (Apis mellifera)

Abstract:

Apitoxin is a source rich in enzymes, peptides and amines that have diverse pharmaceutical properties. This research was carried out to determine the proper conditions of use of the apitoxin extractor prototype in Apis mellifera bees at the Granja de la Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador, Ibarra, and to verify if the treatments differed in the results regarding the mg of apitonan, mg/uL of melittin and number of dead bees per "harvest" day; For this, a statistical crossover design was used with 6 treatments: C1 (copper wire 0.1 mA - 29 V), C2 (copper wire 0.3 mA - 87 V), C3 (copper wire 0.5 mA - 144 V), P1 (silver wire 0.1 mA - 29 V), P2 (silver wire 0.3 mA - 87 V), P3 (silver wire 0.5 mA - 144 V), each of with 6 observations, every 20 days. It was hoped that the bees will be placed in the wire mesh of the equipment and feel a small electrical stimulation, so that it stimulates them to deposit the poison on a glass collector, later to collect, by scraping, to store it and to realize the respective analysis by HPLC. The best C3 treatment with 33.02 mg of apitoxin and few dead bees; the presence of melittin being determined by HPLC. It is concluded that the electric current (voltage and amperage) are factors that influence the aggression of the bee because at higher electric intensity the bees increase their aggressiveness and production of apitoxin.