IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jagris/v13y2023i3p594-d1083755.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Economic Benefits of Using Essential Oils in Food Stimulation Administrated to Bee Colonies

Author

Listed:
  • Silvia Pătruică

    (Faculty of Bioengineering of Animal Resources, University of Life Sciences “King Mihai I” from Timisoara, Calea Aradului No. 119, 300645 Timisoara, Romania)

  • Roxana Nicoleta Lazăr

    (Faculty of Bioengineering of Animal Resources, University of Life Sciences “King Mihai I” from Timisoara, Calea Aradului No. 119, 300645 Timisoara, Romania)

  • Genoveva Buzamăt

    (Faculty of Bioengineering of Animal Resources, University of Life Sciences “King Mihai I” from Timisoara, Calea Aradului No. 119, 300645 Timisoara, Romania)

  • Marius Boldea

    (Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Life Sciences “King Mihai I” from Timisoara, Calea Aradului No. 119, 300645 Timisoara, Romania)

Abstract

Bees are the most important pollinators of agricultural plants. The decline of bee colonies is caused by a multitude of factors of which diseases, pesticides, and climate change seem to be the most important. Losses can be huge when several factors act together. In recent years, there has been a growing interest in the use of alternative sources such as medicinal plants in the form of extracts or essential oils. The purpose of our research was to evaluate the economic efficiency of the use of essential oils of basil ( Ocimum basilicum ), cinnamon ( Cinnamomum veruum ), clove ( Syzgium aromaticum ), juniper ( Juniperus communis L.), oregano ( Oreganum vulgare ), mint ( Mentha piperita ), rosemary ( Rosmarius officinalis ), and thyme (Thymus vulgaris L.) in the additional feeding of bee colonies in the spring. Ninety colonies of Apis mellifera bees were used, which were additionally fed with sugar syrup and one of the essential oils. Our results showed strong positive correlations between the total number of germs in the gut of worker bees and the number of brood cells when using the essential oil of oregano ( Oreganum vulgare ) (R 2 = 0.786) and thyme (Thymus vulgaris L.) (R 2 = 0.729), and between the total number of germs and the yield of honey obtained at the first harvest in the case of the essential oil of basil ( Ocimum basilicum) (R 2 = 1), mint ( Mentha piperita ) (R 2 = 0.718), oregano ( Oreganum vulgare ) (R 2 = 0.621), and Thyme (Thymus vulgaris L) (R 2 = 0.859). The best profit from the sale of honey was obtained in the case of the use of essential oils of mint, oregano, thyme, and basil, in a range of EUR 139.16–144.73/bee colony.

Suggested Citation

  • Silvia Pătruică & Roxana Nicoleta Lazăr & Genoveva Buzamăt & Marius Boldea, 2023. "Economic Benefits of Using Essential Oils in Food Stimulation Administrated to Bee Colonies," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 13(3), pages 1-12, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jagris:v:13:y:2023:i:3:p:594-:d:1083755
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/13/3/594/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/13/3/594/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Simon G. Potts & Vera Imperatriz-Fonseca & Hien T. Ngo & Marcelo A. Aizen & Jacobus C. Biesmeijer & Thomas D. Breeze & Lynn V. Dicks & Lucas A. Garibaldi & Rosemary Hill & Josef Settele & Adam J. Vanb, 2016. "Safeguarding pollinators and their values to human well-being," Nature, Nature, vol. 540(7632), pages 220-229, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Bartosz Piechowicz & Anna Koziorowska, 2023. "The Pollinators in Agricultural Ecosystems," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 13(5), pages 1-3, May.
    2. Irina Neta Gostin & Irinel Eugen Popescu, 2023. "Evaluation of the Essential Oils Used in the Production of Biopesticides: Assessing Their Toxicity toward Both Arthropod Target Species and Beneficial Pollinators," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 14(1), pages 1-30, December.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Nicolás Ruiz, Néstor & Suárez Alonso, María Luisa & Vidal-Abarca, María Rosario, 2021. "Contributions of dry rivers to human well-being: A global review for future research," Ecosystem Services, Elsevier, vol. 50(C).
    2. Hristov, Jordan & Clough, Yann & Sahlin, Ullrika & Smith, Henrik G. & Stjernman, Martin & Olsson, Ola & Sahrbacher, Amanda & Brady, Mark V., 2020. "Impacts of the EU's Common Agricultural Policy “Greening” reform on agricultural development, biodiversity, and ecosystem services," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 42(4), pages 716-738.
    3. Teodoro Semeraro & Roberta Aretano & Amilcare Barca & Alessandro Pomes & Cecilia Del Giudice & Elisa Gatto & Marcello Lenucci & Riccardo Buccolieri & Rohinton Emmanuel & Zhi Gao & Alessandra Scognamig, 2020. "A Conceptual Framework to Design Green Infrastructure: Ecosystem Services as an Opportunity for Creating Shared Value in Ground Photovoltaic Systems," Land, MDPI, vol. 9(8), pages 1-28, July.
    4. Bezerra, Antonio Diego M. & Pacheco Filho, Alípio J.S. & Bomfim, Isac G.A. & Smagghe, Guy & Freitas, Breno M., 2019. "Agricultural area losses and pollinator mismatch due to climate changes endanger passion fruit production in the Neotropics," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 169(C), pages 49-57.
    5. Sabine Dritz & Rebecca A. Nelson & Fernanda S. Valdovinos, 2023. "The role of intra-guild indirect interactions in assembling plant-pollinator networks," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-13, December.
    6. David Urbán-Duarte & José Fernando De La Torre-Sánchez & Yooichi Kainoh & Kazuo Watanabe, 2021. "Biodiversity and Stage of the Art of Three Pollinators Taxa in Mexico: An Overview," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(16), pages 1-16, August.
    7. Giulia Capotorti & Simone Valeri & Arianna Giannini & Valerio Minorenti & Mariagrazia Piarulli & Paolo Audisio, 2023. "On the Role of Natural and Induced Landscape Heterogeneity for the Support of Pollinators: A Green Infrastructure Perspective Applied in a Peri-Urban System," Land, MDPI, vol. 12(2), pages 1-29, January.
    8. Piotr Gradziuk & Krzysztof Jończyk & Barbara Gradziuk & Adrianna Wojciechowska & Anna Trocewicz & Marcin Wysokiński, 2021. "An Economic Assessment of the Impact on Agriculture of the Proposed Changes in EU Biofuel Policy Mechanisms," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(21), pages 1-21, October.
    9. Tremlett, Constance J. & Peh, Kelvin S.-H. & Zamora-Gutierrez, Veronica & Schaafsma, Marije, 2021. "Value and benefit distribution of pollination services provided by bats in the production of cactus fruits in central Mexico," Ecosystem Services, Elsevier, vol. 47(C).
    10. Blaydes, H. & Potts, S.G. & Whyatt, J.D. & Armstrong, A., 2021. "Opportunities to enhance pollinator biodiversity in solar parks," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 145(C).
    11. Santibañez, Fernanda & Joseph, Julien & Abramson, Guillermo & Kuperman, Marcelo N. & Laguna, María Fabiana & Garibaldi, Lucas A., 2022. "Designing crop pollination services: A spatially explicit agent-based model for real agricultural landscapes," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 472(C).
    12. Delphine Gibassier & Karen Maas & Stefan Schaltegger, 2019. "Special issue of business, strategy, and the environment call for papers business, society, biodiversity, and natural capital deadline June 30, 2020 (see details of conference/workshop at the end of t," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(5), pages 921-924, July.
    13. Edward B. Barbier & Joanne C. Burgess, 2021. "Sustainable Use of the Environment, Planetary Boundaries and Market Power," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(2), pages 1-19, January.
    14. Arianna Latini & Ilaria Papagni & Lorenzo Gatti & Patrizia De Rossi & Alessandro Campiotti & Germina Giagnacovo & Daniele Mirabile Gattia & Susanna Mariani, 2022. "Echium vulgare and Echium plantagineum : A Comparative Study to Evaluate Their Inclusion in Mediterranean Urban Green Roofs," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(15), pages 1-19, August.
    15. Raviv, Orna & Shiri, Zemah-Shamir & Ido, Izhaki & Alon, Lotan, 2021. "The effect of wildfire and land-cover changes on the economic value of ecosystem services in Mount Carmel Biosphere Reserve, Israel," Ecosystem Services, Elsevier, vol. 49(C).
    16. Sheina Koffler & Celso Barbiéri & Natalia P. Ghilardi-Lopes & Jailson N. Leocadio & Bruno Albertini & Tiago M. Francoy & Antonio M. Saraiva, 2021. "A Buzz for Sustainability and Conservation: The Growing Potential of Citizen Science Studies on Bees," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(2), pages 1-15, January.
    17. Cuppari, Rosa I. & Higgins, Chad W. & Characklis, Gregory W., 2021. "Agrivoltaics and weather risk: A diversification strategy for landowners," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 291(C).
    18. José Luis Molina-Pardo & Emilio Rodríguez-Caballero & Miguel Cueto & Pablo Barranco & Manuel Sánchez-Robles & Azucena Laguía-Allué & Esther Giménez-Luque, 2021. "Effects of Agricultural Use on Endangered Plant Taxa in Spain," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 11(11), pages 1-25, November.
    19. Martin Šlachta & Tomáš Erban & Alena Votavová & Tomáš Bešta & Michal Skalský & Marta Václavíková & Taťána Halešová & Magda Edwards-Jonášová & Renata Včeláková & Pavel Cudlín, 2020. "Domestic Gardens Mitigate Risk of Exposure of Pollinators to Pesticides—An Urban-Rural Case Study Using a Red Mason Bee Species for Biomonitoring," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(22), pages 1-17, November.
    20. Carturan, Bruno S. & Siewe, Nourridine & Cobbold, Christina A. & Tyson, Rebecca C., 2023. "Bumble bee pollination and the wildflower/crop trade-off: When do wildflower enhancements improve crop yield?," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 484(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jagris:v:13:y:2023:i:3:p:594-:d:1083755. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.