Stingless Bee Nest Cerumen and Propolis, Volume 1

“These volumes are brimming with useful information and interesting content and despite the heterogeneity of the editing and other problems they are necessary reading for anyone interested in stingless bee nesting biology and their relation to plant resins, and broadly on their propolis and cerumen ... .” (Michael S. Engel, Entomologist’s Monthly Magazine, Vol. 161 (3), July 2025)

Patricia Vit has studied Biology and MSc Food Science at Universidad Simon Bolivar, Caracas, Venezuela. She became Professor at Universidad de Los Andes in 1985, completed her PhD at Cardiff University, UK, visited the National University of Singapore, The University of Sydney, Australia, and Universidad Técnica de Machala, Ecuador. She supports the initiative Living Museum of Meliponini Bees in the World. Her research on pot-honey and SBH standards, expanded to cerumen and propolis structures of the nest. More than 100 papers and 34 books were published as an author or editor, including Pot-honey and Pot-Pollen. She received the Award Women in Science 2023, Health Science, from ACFIMAN, Caracas, Venezuela, and is a Council Member of the International Bee Research Association, UK.

Vassya Bankova obtained her PhD in Natural Product Chemistry at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Sofia. In 2004 she became full professor at the Institute of Organic Chemistry with Centre of Phytochemistry, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. In her research she pays special attention to propolis - its chemical composition, plant origin, biological activity and standardization. Her total number of publications is over 220. She is a founding member of the Bulgarian Phytochemical Society. In 2015 she was elected to a corresponding member of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, and in 2020 a member of Academia Europea.

Milena Popova obtained her Master's degree in chemistry and physics at Sofia University “Sv. Kliment Oxridski”; completed her PhD in natural product chemistry at the Institute of Organic Chemistry with Centre of Phytochemistry, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (IOCCP-BAS) in 2004, and became full professor at IOCCP-BAS in 2019. She was a postdoctoral researcher at University of Athens. Her research interests include chemical profiling, isolation and structural elucidation of bioactive compounds from natural products: endemic plants, propolis, mushrooms. She is a co-author of 100+ papers, cited over 3 800 times. She is a member of the Association for Medicinal and Aromatic Plants of Southeast Europe and Bulgarian Phytochemical Society, and is Head of the Laboratory “Chemistry of Natural Products” at IOCCP-BAS.