The aim of this study was to evaluate the concentration of 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF), furfural, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), and pesticide residues, as well as assessment of cancer ...risk of the Polish-origin bee products. The bee product samples were prepared using a modified QuEChERS method, then PAHs and pesticides were analysed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS), neonicotinoids by high-performance liquid chromatography with a diode array detector (HPLC-DAD), and HMF and furfural by spectrophotometry (HPLC-UV/Vis). The results showed that the highest furfural content was found in bee bread from the northeast part of Poland; moreover, samples obtained from the same region were also characterized with a higher level of HMF. The total sum of PAHs ranged from 324.0 to 866.4 μg/kg; the highest content of PAH4 (the sum of benzoaanthracene, chrysene, benzobfluoranthene and benzoapyrene) was 21.0 μg/kg, but only benzoaanthracene and chrysene were detected in the samples. Imidacloprid and acetamiprid were found only in bee bread from the northeast part of Poland, while clothianidin was detected in honey samples. The acceptable cancer risk has been calculated for PAHs due to ingestion of honey, while increasing the risk of cancer was calculated for bee bread and bee pollen. Due to the high concentration of PAHs and excessively high recommended consumption dose, regular consumption of bee bread and pollen may pose a severe threat to human health and should be strictly limited.
•Content of contaminants varied significantly across bee products.•Beeswax was characterized by the highest total PAHs concentration.•The PAHs in bee products come from petro- and pyrogenic combustions.•The cancer risk assessment of bee products depends on the concentration of PAHs.
Bee pollen, a natural resource collected by bees, is rich in many nutrients, therefore it may represent a useful dietary supplement. Different uses of bee pollen are proposed due to its beneficial ...health properties, which includes the capacity to improve animal performance and promote immunostimulation. Animal nutrition can directly affect adults and their offspring, and larval stage is a critical moment for fish due to high mortality related to immune challenges. Thus, the present study attempted to evaluate the effects of adding bee pollen to a zebrafish diet, specifically, analyzing the effects on reproduction and immunity transference to descendants. Zebrafish adults received control diets based on commercial flakes and live food Artemia sp. nauplii or bee pollen-supplemented diets, administered three times a day, at the same time. The animals received the diets over 60 d, and throughout this period, they were tested for: egg production per female, total number of eggs, embryo viability rate, larval survival rate after exposure to spring viremia of carp virus and to Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium, and larval neutrophil recruitment after tail wounding. Bee pollen supplementation failed to improve egg production and embryo viability, and was unable to substitute flakes in zebrafish breeders. Instead, the offspring of breeders fed with bee pollen supplemented diets showed longer survival upon virus exposure and higher neutrophil migration to wounds. These results indicate that bee pollen can influence vertical immunity through important mechanisms related to offspring immunity in the early stages, when larval immune system is not fully developed.
•Bee pollen in the diet did not alter zebrafish egg and embryo viability.•Bee pollen influenced the vertical immunity of zebrafish.•Bee pollen improved larval resistance to viral infection and neutrophil migration.•Bee pollen did not alter larval resistance to bacterial infection.
An accurate, economic and green methodology for Pb(II) monitoring in bee products is proposed. Complexed metal traces were preconcentrated on Nylon membranes using the coacervation phenomenon based ...on room temperature reaction between the cationic surfactant hexadecyltrimethylammonium bromide and the bile salt sodium cholate. The increase in solid surface fluorescence signal of dyes 8-hydroxyquinoleine and o-phenanthroline due to Pb(II) presence was used for the metal quantification. Experimental variables that influence on preconcentration step and fluorimetric sensitivity were optimized using uni-varied assays. Pb(II) concentration was determined on membranes by solid surface fluorescence at λ
= 470 nm (λ
= 445 nm), using a solid sample holder. The calibration at optimal experimental conditions showed a LOD of 4.2 × 10
mg Kg
with a linear range of 1.28 × 10
mg Kg
to 8.73 mg Kg
and was successfully applied to Pb(II) quantification in different bee products produced in central west region of Argentina. The proposed methodology was applied to all samples after appropriate dilution. Accuracy methodology was evaluated by comparison of the obtained results with those found by ICP-MS, with percentage relative error under 8%. The precision was better than 0.0344 CV for Pb(II) determination.
With the aim to obtain controlled-release systems and to preserve the antioxidant, immunomodulatory, and prebiotic activity of the bioactive compounds, microencapsulation of both honeydew honey and ...royal jelly into biopolymeric microparticles based on rye bran heteropolysaccharides (HPS) was successfully performed. Honeydew honey and royal jelly microcapsules were prepared by spray-drying method and were characterized in terms of morphology and biological properties. Due to the resistance of the obtained encapsulates to the acidic pH in the stomach and digestive enzymes, the microcapsules showed prebiotic properties positively influencing both the growth, retardation of the dying phase, and the pro-adhesive properties of probiotic bacteria, i.e., Bifidobacterium spp. and lactic acid bacteria. Moreover, as a result of fermentation of the microcapsules of bee products in the lumen of the large intestine, an increased synthesis of short-chain fatty acids, i.e., butyric acid, was found on average by 39.2% in relation to the SCFA concentrations obtained as a result of fermentation of native bee products, thus opening new perspectives for the exploitation of honeydew honey and royal jelly loaded microcapsules for nutraceutical applications.
This study aimed to determine the organic acid profiles of bee products such as royal jelly, bee venom, bee pollen and bee bread, as well as to verify the method employed in the study. For this ...purpose, royal jelly, bee venom, bee pollen and bee bread samples were obtained from different locations, and 55 individual organic acids were determined using the liquid chromatography technique coupled with tandem mass spectrometry (LC–MS/MS), and method verification was carried out. Moreover, principal component and hierarchical cluster analyses were performed to compare the organic acid content of bee products and evaluate the overall variation. According to the results, the order of the total organic acid profiles was determined as bee venom (4141 mg/kg-6260 mg/kg) > bee bread (736–990 mg/kg) > bee pollen (837–1503 mg/kg) > royal jelly (192–1947 mg/kg). Although citric acid (423–41,519 mg/kg) was dominantly detected in samples among the organic acids screened. It is thought that the results obtained will contribute to scientific studies carried out to determine the authenticity of bee products and their standardization.
Foodomics is an emerging research field in food science that applies advanced omics technologies to assess relevant aspects related to food and nutrition, with the ultimate goal to improve human ...health and well-being. Many studies have already shown the tremendous potential of this approach to boost food science research regarding food authentication and traceability, safety issues, improved quality, bioactivity and the action of specific bioactive compounds in diverse biological systems. Honey bees provide high-quality products and a wide range of benefits to humans. Honey is certainly the most widespread edible bee product. However, nowadays other edible bee products (royal jelly, propolis, pollen and naturally fermented pollen (bee bread) are considered superfoods due to their high nutritional value and their beneficial effects on human health. This review aims to present current omics implementations in honey bee product research related to authentication (e.g. botanical origin, biomarker identification), adulteration detection, bioactivity (e.g. anti-microbial, antioxidant), microbiome characterization and their effects on human health. Conclusively, many studies have proven the tremendous potential of -omics technologies in bee product research. This approach will be further implemented in the future: (i) for the comprehensive assessment of bee product authentication, quality, safety and traceability; (ii) to elucidate the role of bioactive compounds in bee products, (iii) to identify novel molecular biomarkers for disease prevention; (iv) to establish the effect of bee products on gut microbiome; (v) to elucidate biological processes of agronomic interest and economic relevance to bee products.
Honey is a natural food product with health benefits due to its numerous functional components that help to prevent and cure various diseases. This book provides a comprehensive overview of honey and ...honey production. The chapters discuss beekeeping practices, the geographical, entomological, and botanical origin of honey, the characteristics and properties of honey, the therapeutic and medicinal potential of honey, and honey’s utilization in processed food products.
The concept of ecosystem services is widely understood as the services and benefits thatecosystems provide to humans, and they have been categorised into provisioning, regulating, supporting, and ...cultural services. This article aims to provide an updated overview of the benefits that the honey bee
provides to humans as well as ecosystems. We revised the role of honey bees as pollinators in natural ecosystems to preserve and restore the local biodiversity of wild plants; in agro-ecosystems, this species is widely used to enhance crop yield and quality, meeting the increasing food demand. Beekeeping activity provides humans not only with high-quality food but also with substances used as raw materials and in pharmaceuticals, and in polluted areas, bees convey valuable information on the environmental presence of pollutants and their impact on human and ecosystem health. Finally, the role of the honey bee in symbolic tradition, mysticism, and the cultural values of the bee habitats are also presented. Overall, we suggest that the symbolic value of the honey bee is the most important role played by this insect species, as it may help revitalise and strengthen the intimate and reciprocal relationship between humans and the natural world, avoiding the inaccuracy of considering the ecosystems as mere providers of services to humans.
Increased demand for a more balanced, healthy, and safe diet has accelerated studies on natural bee products (including honey, bee bread, bee collected pollen royal jelly, propolis, beeswax, and bee ...venom) over the past decade. Advanced food processing techniques, such as ultrasonication and microwave and infrared (IR) irradiation, either has gained popularity as alternatives or combined with conventional processing techniques for diverse applications in apiculture products at laboratory or industrial scale. The processing techniques used for each bee products have comprehensively summarized in this review, including drying (traditional drying, infrared drying, microwave-assisted traditional drying or vacuum drying, and low temperature high velocity-assisted fluidized bed drying), storage, extraction, isolation, and identification; the assessment methods related to the quality control of bee products are also fully mentioned. The different processing techniques applied in bee products aim to provide more healthy active ingredients largely and effectively. Furthermore, improved the product quality with a shorter processing time and reduced operational cost are achieved using conventional or emerging processing techniques. This review will increase the positive ratings of the combined new processing techniques according to the needs of the bee products. The importance of the models for process optimization on a large scale is also emphasized in the future.
Buzz is a fascinating reminder of the interconnections between humans and animals, even in that most urban of environments, New York City. - Gary Alan Fine, author ofAuthors of the Storm: ...Meteorologists and the Culture of PredictionBees are essential for human survival - one-third of all food on American dining tables depends on the labor of bees. Beyond pollination, the very idea of the bee is ubiquitous in our culture: we can feel buzzed; we can create buzz; we have worker bees, drones, and Queen bees; we establish collectives and even have communities that share a hive-mind. InBuzz, authors Lisa Jean Moore and Mary Kosut convincingly argue that the power of bees goes beyond the food cycle, bees are our mascots, our models, and, unlike any other insect, are both feared and revered.In this fascinating account, Moore and Kosut travel into the land of urban beekeeping in New York City, where raising bees has become all the rage. We follow them as they climb up on rooftops, attend beekeeping workshops and honey festivals, and even put on full-body beekeeping suits and open up the hives. In the process, we meet a passionate, dedicated, and eclectic group of urban beekeepers who tend to their brood with an emotional and ecological connection that many find restorative and empowering. Kosut and Moore also interview professional beekeepers and many others who tend to their bees for their all-important production of a food staple: honey. The artisanal food shops that are so popular in Brooklyn are a perfect place to sell not just honey, but all manner of goods: soaps, candles, beeswax, beauty products, and even bee pollen.Buzzalso examines media representations of bees, such as children's books, films, and consumer culture, bringing to light the reciprocal way in which the bee and our idea of the bee inform one another. Partly an ethnographic investigation and partly a meditation on the very nature of human/insect relations, Moore and Kosut argue that how we define, visualize, and interact with bees clearly reflects our changing social and ecological landscape, pointing to how we conceive of and create culture, and how, in essence, we create ourselves.Lisa Jean Mooreis a feminist medical sociologist and Professor of Sociology and Gender Studies at Purchase College, State University of New York.Mary Kosutis Associate Professor of Media, Society and the Arts at Purchase College, State University of New York.In theBiopoliticsseries
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