Dados do Trabalho

Título

NUTRITIONAL AND BIOACTIVE EVALUATION OF STINGLESS BEE POLLENS FROM THE AMAZON

Introdução

Pollen can be defined as the male component of flowers and has been used as a supplement to the human diet. In stingless bees, native to the Amazon, the pollen collected in their nests is also known as “saburá”, rich in proteins, enzymes and bioactive compounds that help in its natural conservation.

Material e Métodos

In this study, pollens collected in nests of Melipona flavolineata (MF) and Scaptotrigona postica (SP) bees, from the city of Belém-PA, were evaluated. The pollens were analyzed through proximate composition analyzes (moisture, ash, lipids, proteins, carbohydrates and total energy value - TEV) and bioactive composition of their hydroalcoholic extracts (ethanol:water, 60:40, v:v) through analyzes of total phenolic compounds (TPC), total flavonoids (TF) and antioxidant activity using the ABTS•+ e DPPH• radical methods.

Resultados e Discussão

The pollens found in the species (MF and SP, respectively) presented humidity results of 50.22 ± 0.47 and 40.17 ± 0.29 g/100g, ash of 0.89 ± 0.07 and 0.57 ± 0.01 g/100g in dry base (d.b.), lipids of 9.51 ± 0.09 and 11.70 ± 0.25 g/100g d.b., proteins of 11.59 ± 0.06 and 7.24 ± 0.19 g/100g d.b., carbohydrates of 27.79 and 40.32 g/100g d.b. and TEV of 243.09 kcal and 295.59 kcal, showing that pollen from SP had a higher energy value compared to that from MF. The MF extract presented a higher concentration of TPC, with a value of 5.70 ± 0.04 against 4.89 ± 0.09 gGAE/100g of the SP extract. And TF of 0.44 ± 0.03 against 0.19 ± 0.01 gQE/100g of SP extract. However, greater antioxidant activity was observed in the SP extract (ABTS: 31.99 ± 0.34 mmolTE/100g and DPPH: 9.42 ± 0.24 mmolTE/100g) than in the MF extract (ABTS: 19.91 ± 1.01 mmolTE/100g and DPPH: 4.85 ± 0.21 mmolTE/100g), that is, antioxidant activity may be related to other compounds than phenolics.

Conclusão

In this way, we could conclude that the pollens found in both species are a source of energy and bioactivity, presenting themselves as healthy alternative sources for the human diet, adding value to the meliponiculture production chain, which is still underdeveloped and explored in the Amazon.