Industrial-Scale Decontamination Procedure Effects on the Content of Acaricides, Heavy Metals and Antioxidant Capacity of Beeswax

Abstract

Beeswax is useful for the beekeeping sector but also for the agro-food, pharmaceutical or cosmetics sectors. Frequently, this bee product is contaminated with pesticides reducing its utility and causing the decline in its market. This study aimed to prove the effectiveness of an industrial-scale decontamination method in removing acaricides from beeswax. Chlorfenvinphos and coumaphos decrease was higher than 90%, whereas tau fluvalinate decrease was only 30%. No changes were observed in the beeswax content of hydrocarbons and monoesters, whereas a decrease in the concentrations of Ca, Fe, Zn, Hg, Mn and P, and an increase in the concentrations of As and Si were found after the decontamination. Filtration reduced total phenolics, flavonoids and the antioxidant capacity of the lipophilic extract. These results demonstrate that the industrial method used was as effective as the method previously tested on a laboratory scale. The study also contributes to a better knowledge and characterization of beeswax, specially related to trace and ultra-trace elements and antioxidant capacity. Moreover, it offers the chance to further develop a method to effectively detect wax adulterations based on the chemical elements profile.

The Profile of Polyphenolic Compounds, Contents of Total Phenolics and Flavonoids, and Antioxidant and Antimicrobial Properties of Bee Products

“…To the best of our knowledge, there is a lack of data on the content of bioactive compounds in beeswax. Our data of TPC are higher than the values reported for Spanish beeswax [23]. However, the other papers showed only the content of polyphenols in the by-products from beeswax recycling process [24].…”

“…The obtained multifloral honey DPPH values are slightly lower than those reported by Habryka et al [26]. Moreover, our data obtained for beeswax was about 3-times lower than those obtained for the Spanish beeswax [23]. However, DPPH values obtained for bee bread, multifloral honey, and bee pollen were difficult to compare with previously published data mainly due to different units of measure adopted [14,20,21,28].…”

Processing Aids in Food and Beverage Manufacturing: Potential Source of Elemental and Trace Metal Contaminants

“…Navarro-Hortal et al processed beeswax using an DE/activated carbon blend and found that it altered the levels of trace metals in the filtered material. 31 The authors mixed beeswax with filter aid at a ratio of 1 g per kg beeswax and then filtered the slurry by pumping it through a cellulose filter. The authors found that such processing significantly altered the levels of multiple target elements in the final product.…”

“…In addition to beverages, filter aids are commonly used to process other foodstuffs. Navarro-Hortal et al processed beeswax using an DE/activated carbon blend and found that it altered the levels of trace metals in the filtered material . The authors mixed beeswax with filter aid at a ratio of 1 g per kg beeswax and then filtered the slurry by pumping it through a cellulose filter.…”

Sustainable and Repulpable Barrier Coatings for Fiber-Based Materials for Food Packaging: A Review

“…Functionalized bioderived hydrophobic lipid coatings have been reported to offer improved water barrier performance, good adherence, smoothness, gloss, and biological activity (Zhang et al, 2014a;Fratini et al, 2016;York et al, 2019;Hutton-Prager et al, 2021;Wang et al, 2021;Chungsiriporn et al, 2022). In particular, beeswax and Carnauba wax can be extracted on an industrial scale (de Freitas et al, 2019;Navarro-Hortal et al, 2019). Beeswax is a mixture of various long-chain fatty acids, alcohols, and esters with a surface energy of ~16 mJ m −2 and a melting point ranging from 62 °C to 64 °C (Zhang et al, 2014a).…”