Botanical origin approach for a better understanding of chemical and nutritional composition of beebread as an important value-added food supplement

Abstract

Beebread (BB) is a fermented bee product made from plant pollen, honey and bee saliva. The nutritive and biological compounds of BB vary greatly depending on the diversity of flora and the season of pollen collection by bees. In order to evaluate this valuable bee product potential, thirteen BB samples were analyzed on the nutritive proprieties and biologically active compounds, correlated with their botanical origin. The obtained results shows that BB comes with a high content of proteins with values ranging between 18.96 and 23.11 g/100 g, lipids ranging between 4.89 and 14.74 g/100 g, and free sugars, fructose being present in the highest amount (17.27 g/100 g). Analyzed samples contain all the essential amino acids, methionine being the most abundant, 86.93–12.38 mg/100 g, mono- and polyunsaturated fatty acids, ω-6/ω-3 ratio varying between 0.02 – 1.07. BB samples have also high amount of natural antioxidants, from the class of polyphenols and flavonol glycoside derivative. These findings suggest that BB could be used as a source of potential value-added nutrients and bioactive compounds and contributes to the chemical knowledge of this natural product.