Screening for quality indicators and phenolic compounds of biotechnological interest in honey samples from six species of stingless bees (Hymenoptera: Apidae)

Abstract

Honey from stingless bees of the genus Melipona is a well sought product. Nevertheless lack of legal frameworks for quality assessment complicates the evaluation of food safety and marketing of these products. Seeking to assess the quality of honey from the bees of this genus, physical and chemical analyses, identification of phenolic compounds, and microbiological evaluation from six species of stingless bees was performed. The honey samples showed high reducing sugars, low protein levels and a balanced microbiota. High total phenols and flavonoids and higher antioxidant activity were also recorded. Different phenolic compounds of great biotechnological potential were identified and of these apigenin, kaempferol and luteolin were identified for the first time in honey. To the best of our knowledge, this is one of the few works describing a detail characterization of melipona honey together with identification of the phenolic compounds of significant therapeutic value.Keywords: honey; chromatography; flavonoids; phenols; antioxidants; stingless bees; pollen types.Practical Application: This is one of the few works that describe the characterization of honey from seven species of stingless bees together detailing the identification of phenolic compounds of significant therapeutic value, which can serve as an important reference for future studies.

Simultaneous Identification of Phenolic Compound from the Honey of Stingless Bee by Using HPLC

“…anticarcinogenic activity. The identification of flavonoids in honey suggests that they might have chemopreventive action [15]. Another work was conducted by Silva and Co., in 2013, on the extract of stingless bee honey.…”

Microbiological quality of honey from stingless bee, jandaíra (Melipona subnitida), from the semiarid region of Brazil

“…Studies investigating the presence of C. botulinum in honey from A. melifera bees are very common but, to the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to confirm the presence of C. botulinum and C. perfringens in samples of the honey from SB (NAKANO et al, 1990;NEVAS et al, 2005). The presence of C. perfringens in the honey from SB is relevant once this product is being used for therapeutic purposes to heal wounds as this pathogen is commonly associated with gas gangrene in deep wounds (OLAITAN et al, 2007;MERCÊS et al, 2013). In addition, the detection of C. botulinum is of great significance in the present study even though the number of positive samples was lower than those in honey from A. mellifera bees (NAKANO et al, 1990;RAGAZANI et al, 2008).…”

“…However, some samples showed a high count of mesophilic bacteria, which some authors attributed to factors associated with the location of the beekeeping farms that can result in contamination. These sources of contamination include soil, water, air, pollen, and nectar (BÁRBARA et al, 2015;OLIVEIRA et al, 2017).…”

Antioxidant-Based Medicinal Properties of Stingless Bee Products: Recent Progress and Future Directions

“…In this assay, ferric-tripyridyl triazine (Fe 3+ TPTZ) is colorless and it is convertible to be ferrous (Fe 2+ ) with blue color upon electron donation from antioxidants [ 62 ]. Among the several classes of phenolic compounds, a total of 16 phenolic acids ( Figure 5 ), 19 flavonoids ( Figure 6 ) and other five phenolic compounds ( Figure 7 ) have been reported in SBHs at different concentrations [ 31 , 59 , 60 , 63 ]. The major compounds that commonly been reported are gallic acid, salicylic acid, p -coumaric acid, kaempferol, naringin, luteolin, catechin, apigenin and taxifolin [ 31 , 59 , 60 , 63 ].…”

“…Among the several classes of phenolic compounds, a total of 16 phenolic acids ( Figure 5 ), 19 flavonoids ( Figure 6 ) and other five phenolic compounds ( Figure 7 ) have been reported in SBHs at different concentrations [ 31 , 59 , 60 , 63 ]. The major compounds that commonly been reported are gallic acid, salicylic acid, p -coumaric acid, kaempferol, naringin, luteolin, catechin, apigenin and taxifolin [ 31 , 59 , 60 , 63 ]. The concentration of phenolic compounds differed based on the species of stingless bees and the vegetation at the sites of SBH collection [ 60 ].…”