Honey microflora associated with the stingless bee Melipona Beecheii

The study of the microorganisms associated with Melipona honey is very important, especially from two points of view: the content of probiotics and innocuity. Even when properties of bee honey, such as osmotic pressure, hydrogen peroxide content and pH, lead to think that this food could not contain any microorganisms; there are reports about existing microflora in the bee honey. Pollen and honeybee stomachs are the main sources of microorganisms in honey. However, other sources, during manipulation, could introduce other microorganisms, sometimes pathogenic. In this chapter, we discuss about the microflora found in Melipona honey. Microbiological, biochemical and molecular techniques have been employed to identify the microorganisms present in bee honey; former studies report the existence of some bacteria, mainly of Bacillus genus, yeasts like Candida and fungi like Aspergillus. Recent research in our group has permitted to isolate and identify some non-pathogenic bacteria such as Bacillus subtilis / Bacillus amyloliquefaciens, Bacillus pumilus / Bacillus safensis and Bacillus licheniformis in Melipona honey. Furthermore, determination of microflora in honey could be used as a microbiological quality standard due to some pathogenic species of bacteria like Bacillus larvae, Bacillus cereus and Bacillus alvei could affect the innocuity of Melipona honey.