A natural compound made by Australian bees to seal their hives may help stop scarring in human skin after surgery, injury and burns, according to University of the Sunshine Coast researchers. The scientists say the laboratory finding has “immense potential” for future applications in people with scarring ranging from shallow and cosmetic to deep and debilitating, known as hypertrophic.
The compound was found in propolis produced by the native stingless bee Tetragonula carbonaria, a black insect up to four millimeters long sometimes mistaken for a fly.
Propolis is a sticky mix of plant resins, beeswax, essential oils and pollen. It can be scraped from hives by beekeepers.
Stingless bees, commonly known as sugarbag bees, use propolis for their nest construction, predator deterrence and protection against bee pathogens.
How the compound was tested
Ph.D. student Lisa Randall and supervisors including Associate Professor Fraser Russell, Dr. Trong Tran and Professor Robert Harvey extracted the compound, called tomentosenol A, from South East Queensland propolis and injected it into human cells grown in culture plates.
Dr. Randall said the early results were promising enough to proceed to pre-clinical trials.
“The compound not only blocked the signals that were causing scarring, it also encouraged the scar-forming cells to self-destruct. This is what occurs in normal wound healing.”
She said millions of people each year suffered serious wounds or burns that healed as thick, raised scars, potentially causing lifelong pain and disability.
“Existing treatments such as corticosteroid injections, scar correction surgery, pressure garments and silicone sheets can have limited effectiveness, so there’s an urgent need for new treatments that are more consistently effective, accessible and tolerable—and directly target the underlying causes.”
Next steps towards human trials
Professor Harvey, Associate Dean of Research in UniSC’s School of Health, said the findings were exciting.
“Taken together, these findings firmly establish tomentosenol A as a lead compound to test for anti-scarring activity in models of hypertrophic scarring, as the next step towards human clinical trials,” he said.
The research was supported by the Lucas’ Papaw Foundation.
The study, combined with an earlier paper published in Scientific Reports, follows research by UniSC organic chemistry academic Dr. Trong Tran to investigate the potential health benefits and applications of propolis.
Mapping Australia’s stingless bee propolis
Key industry partners are Native Beeings, the Australian Native Bee Association, Van Rooyen Group and Sugarbag Bees.
A study published last year, led by Ph.D. student Damon Woods and supervised by Dr. Tran, comprehensively assessed for the first time the quality and chemical diversity of two stingless bee species in the Tetragonula genus.
About 170 raw propolis samples were collected across the eastern coast of Queensland and New South Wales by local beekeepers in 2022 and 2023.
“We found nine distinct propolis types with potent antioxidants, indicating that sugarbag bees—like some honeybees—could contribute to new health products in food, supplements, cosmetics and pharmaceuticals,” Dr. Tran said.
“The findings enhance awareness of Australian stingless bee propolis in the growing domestic market and in global markets already worth billions of dollars.”
Industry potential and commercial interest
Entomologist Dr. Tim Heard, whose hives at Sugarbag Bees near Brisbane have provided propolis for UniSC projects, said there were big opportunities for the apiculture industry.
“It’s currently an overlooked byproduct of beekeeping in Australia, often discarded as waste,” said Dr. Heard, co-author of Dr. Tran’s 2025 paper.
Native Beeings co-founder and CEO Mariki Visser said the research was exciting for the Queensland company, which focuses on the whole supply chain for native bee propolis, from hive collection to therapeutic products.
“Australia has unique flora, so the diverse resin collected by native bees presents huge opportunities for applications in human health. It’s turning biodiversity into sustainable health care.”
Publication details
Lisa J Randall, Defining signalling pathways to characterise a novel anti-fibrotic agent, University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland (2025). DOI: 10.25907/00980
Journal information:
Scientific Reports
Key medical concepts
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