Chemical, Nutritional and Bioactive Characterization of Colombian Bee-Bread

Bee bread is a product of the hive obtained from pollen collected by bees, to which they added honey and digestive enzymes and subsequently stored in the combs, starting a lactic fermentation which gives it greater power conservation. A proper hive management promotes bee-bread collection, aimed at marketing it for human consumption since it can be considered as food supplement due to its content of a wide range of nutrients. One of the contributions to their high nutritional value is the presence of significant amounts of proteins, vitamins and phenolic compounds as natural antioxidants. The potential application of bee bread as a food and as a nutraceutical supplement depends in large part on its chemical composition which varies directly with the flora of the region and the time of collection by the bees. In this work, 15 samples of bee bread from the Colombian central region known as Cundiboyacense Highland were analysed. Physical-chemical analyses were moisture, ash, lipids, proteins and in vitro digestibility. On the other hand, the content of total flavonoids, phenolic compounds and antioxidant activity (ABTS and FRAP) were also measured. Bee-bread from this region had 15.7 +/-3.6 g/100 g moisture content, and a following centesimal composition based on dry matter: ashes 2.4+/-0.2 g, lipids 3.4 +/-1.1 g and proteins 23.1 +/-2.9 g. In vitro digestibility had values of 79.1 +/-16.0 g hydrolyzed protein/100 g total protein. The total content of flavonoids and phenolics showed values of 3.2 +/-1.0 mg Quercetin/g bee-bread and 8.9+/-3.1 mg Gallic acid/g bee-bread, respectively. Antioxidant activity by FRAP and ABTS reported values of 46.1+/-13.0 and 61.5+/-10.2 mu mol TROLOX/g bee-bread. The antioxidant activity as measured by both techniques suggests a linear correlation between the levels of phenolic compounds. According to the results found, the bee bread is a product with high potential for use as a food supplement.