SOME CALL IT A ‘Miracle Liquid.’

Stingless bees, also known as meliponine bees, surround a honey pot within their hives. Their honey is used to help wounds heal and to treat infections—and brings economic relief to keepers in the Yucatan Peninsula., Mexico

They come in many colors: golden, solid onyx, or striped dandelion and cinnamon. Their eyes can be beady black, slate gray, or even bluish-green. Their bodies may be as small as lentils or big as wine grapes. But the most amazing thing about stingless bees are the honeys they produce, which are increasingly being sought after for food and medicine.

‘Miracle liquid’

There is a long and rich history of using honeys as medicine, especially in ancient times. Some records show that people have used honey as a balm, an inebriant, a psychoactive substance, or as a poison. Multiple contemporary studies suggest that honeys from honeybees and stingless bees have antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory, and wound-healing properties.

Stingless bees make honey with chemicals that ward off microbial and fungal growth, an adaptation to keep the substance from spoiling in the tropics. Given the wide variety of plant biodiversity in the Amazon, and the incredible range of botanical chemicals the bees mix into their honeys and wax, it’s also no surprise it has medicinal value. Indeed, some call such honey a “miracle liquid.”

Already, people in the tropics use several types of stingless bee honeys and wax from their hives to treat upper respiratory infections, skin conditions, gastrointestinal problems, and even to treat diabetes and cancer.

Forest magicians

For thousands of years, Indigenous peoples throughout the New World tropics have harvested honey from dozens of stingless bee species, also known as meliponine bees. These social insect form colonies with a queen and many workers. As the name implies, these insects cannot sting, and are thus less dangerous to raise than, say, European honeybees, which are not native to the New World. Many meliponine bees can, however, inflict painful bites with their mandibles.

Because there are so many species of stingless bees, found throughout all of the world’s tropics and subtropics, the husbandry of such animals, also known as meliponiculture, can be complex. Aside from the Maya, who worked out sophisticated methods for raising stingless bees in the Yucatán Peninsula—practices that survive to this day—many Indigenous peoples traditionally harvested honey from wild hives.