The authors are grateful to the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT, Portugal)
for financial support by national funds FCT/MCTES to CIMO (UIDB/00690/2020) and to FRC
(UIDB/00239/2020). Thanks to the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) through the
Regional Operational Program North 2020, within the scope of Project PDR2020-1.0.1-FEADER-
031734: “DivInA-Diversification and Innovation on Beekeeping Production” and project GreenHealth,
Norte-01-0145-FEDER-000042. Thanks to the national funding by FCT- Foundation for Science and
Technology, through the institutional scientific employment program-contract with Soraia I. Falcão.
The venom from Apis mellifera intermissa, the main honey bee prevailing in Morocco, has
been scarcely studied, despite its known potential for pharmacological applications. In the present
work, we investigated the composition, the anti-inflammatory activity, and the venom’s cytotoxic
properties from fifteen honey bee venom (HBV) samples collected in three regions: northeast,
central, and southern Morocco. The chemical assessment of honey bee venom was performed
using LC-DAD/ESI/MSn, NIR spectroscopy and AAS spectroscopy. The antiproliferative effect
was evaluated using human tumor cell lines, including breast adenocarcinoma, non-small cell lung
carcinoma, cervical carcinoma, hepatocellular carcinoma, and malignant melanoma. Likewise, we
assessed the anti-inflammatory activity using the murine macrophage cell line. The study provides
information on the honey bee venom subspecies’ main components, such as melittin, apamin, and
phospholipase A2, with compositional variation depending on the region of collection. Contents
of toxic elements such as cadmium, chromium, and plumb were detected at a concentration below
5 ppm, which can be regarded as safe for pharmaceutical use. The data presented contribute to the
first study in HBV from Apis mellifera intermissa and highlight the remarkable antiproliferative and
anti-inflammatory effects of HBV, suggesting it to be a candidate natural medicine to explore.
