Search Results (21)

Beeswax is widely used in apiculture and can accumulate neonicotinoid residues due to the intensive use of systemic pesticides in agriculture. These contaminants pose potential risks to honeybee health and may indirectly affect the quality and safety of hive products such as honey, pollen, and royal jelly. This study evaluates several decontamination methods for neonicotinoid removal from contaminated beeswax, including modern techniques (microwaves, ultrasonic baths, and magnetic stirring with heating) and conventional approaches based on heat, agitation, and water—either pure or acidified. Among these, the traditional method that uses an aqueous oxalic acid solution proved highly effective, removing over 99% of neonicotinoid residues after two treatment cycles, even at wax quantities up to 200 g. The treatment also improved the colour and physical properties of the wax and was well tolerated by bees, according to a qualitative acceptance test. The simplicity, low cost, and absence of hazardous by-products make this method suitable for scale-up and adoption in real apicultural practices. These findings support the development of accessible and sustainable strategies for the decontamination of wax matrices that may otherwise act as long-term reservoirs of pesticide residues in the food chain. Full article

The interest in food microbial fermentation has progressively increased in recent decades. This Special Issue collected original research and review articles dealing with the use of microbial cultures aimed at improving the organoleptic and nutritional properties of both traditional and innovative foods, as well as the use of microbial cultures for health purposes. In detail, three research articles investigated specific aspects of fermentation in the production of traditional foods such as kombucha, Chinese Baijiu and sauerkraut, whereas another study suggested pollen and bee bread as a reservoir of functional yeasts. The effect of a symbiotic beverage on body composition and some biochemical parameters of overweight, obese, or type-2 diabetic women has also been evaluated in the remaining research article. The couple of review articles assessed relevant and timely aspects of microbial fermentation: the first one started from the increasing demand of low-alcohol beverages to analyze current and future biotechnological approaches to reduce alcohol content in wine, whereas the second paper focused on how microbial processes can increase both nutritional and functional value of plant-based fermented foods. Full article

Honey is a natural sweet food product with multiple nutritional and medicinal properties, making it a healthy alternative to processed sugars. With the consumers’ recent interest and purchase of dietary products, the global honey market has greatly increased. To keep up with production or simply for financial gain, some producers/companies are now blending pure honey with cheaper substances that possess similar physical characteristics. As there are no notable visible differences between pure and adulterated honey, it is extremely difficult to determine the purity of the available honeys. In this study, an electrochemical genosensor based on the sandwich format DNA hybridization reaction between two complementary probes was developed for the detection and quantification of Erica arborea pollen DNA in real samples. Analyzing public database platforms, a 98 base-pair DNA-target probe capable of unequivocally detecting the pollen from E. arborea was selected and designed. The complementary probe to the DNA-target oligonucleotide sequence was then cut into a 28-base-pair thiolated DNA-capture probe and a 70-base-pair fluorescein isothiocyanate-labelled DNA-signaling probe. To increase the hybridization reaction, a self-assembled monolayer formed from mixing the DNA-capture probe with mercaptohexanol was employed. Using chronoamperometry, the enzymatic amplification of the electrochemical signal was achieved with a concentration range of 0.03 to 2.00 nM. The DNA from certified E. arborea leaves was extracted using liquid nitrogen and mechanical grinding, and the targeted region was amplified by PCR. The developed genosensor was successfully applied for the detection and quantification of the DNA concentration of the extracted E. arborea plant leaves. Therefore, the developed genosensor is a promising, cost-effective, and innovative analytical method to detect and quantify the DNA concentration of plant DNA in real honey samples. Full article

Bee pollen is recognized as a superfood due to its high content of nutrients and bioactive compounds. However, its bioavailability is restricted by a degradation-resistant outer layer known as exine. Physical and biotechnological techniques have recently been developed to degrade this layer and improve pollen’s nutritional and functional profile. This review examines how processing methods such as fermentation, enzymatic hydrolysis, ultrasound, and drying affect pollen’s chemical profile, nutrient content, and bioactive compounds. The review also considers changes in exine structure and possible synergistic effects between these methods. In addition, the challenges associated with the commercialization of processed bee pollen are examined, including issues such as product standardization, stability during storage, and market acceptance. The objective was to provide an understanding of the efficacy of these techniques, their physicochemical conditions, and their effect on the nutritional value of the pollen. The work also analyzes whether pollen transformation is necessary to maximize its benefits and offers conclusions based on the analysis of available methods, helping to determine whether pollen transformation is a valid strategy for inclusion in functional foods and its impact on consumer health. Although the literature reports that pollen transformation influences its final quality, further studies are needed to demonstrate the need for pollen exine modification, which could lead to greater market availability of pollen-based products with functional properties. Full article

Adulteration of food products is a serious problem in the current economy. Honey has become the third most counterfeit food product in the world and requires effective authentication methods. This article presents a new approach to the differentiation of bee pollen, which can support the development of a methodology to test honey quality based on the analysis of bee pollen. The proposed method is built on applying the Hjorth descriptors—Activity, Mobility, and Complexity—known from electroencephalography (EEG) analysis, for 2D bee pollen images. The sources for extracting the bee pollen images were the photos of honey samples, which were taken using a digital camera with a resolution of 5 megapixels connected to the tube of an optical microscope. The honey samples used were prepared according to the Polish standard PN-88/A-77626 (related to the European standard CELEX-32001L0110-PL-TXT). The effectiveness of the proposed method was positively verified for three selected groups of bee pollen—Brassica napus, Helianthus, and Phacelia—containing 35 images. Statistical analysis confirms the ability of the Hjorth descriptors to differentiate the indicated bee pollen groups. Based on the results obtained, there is a significant difference between the bee pollen groups under consideration regarding Activity $p<0.00001$, Mobility $p<0.0001$, and Complexity $p<0.00001$. Full article

Apiculture has presented significant growth in the last decades in Europe and worldwide. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), there were 25.1 million bee colonies in Europe in 2021, with most of them being located in the southeastern countries. Smart technologies have invaded almost every pillar of agriculture, including apiculture. Modern apiculture is rather more nomadic than sedentary. Nomadism in beekeeping requires monitoring the settlement of bee colonies, in more than one place per year, in order to select more honey and pollen and contribute to the overall growth of the bees. To this scope, it is efficient to monitor and have wide control of bees remotely, in parallel with other smart applications, in order to prevent crises that would affect bee survival and/or yield production. The objectives of this paper are to outline a series of automation systems in apiculture used as a means towards the optimization of bee apiary management processes. Four beekeepers’ case studies were used to demonstrate how sensors and communication means transfer multiple bee-related data from various bee apiary locations to a single control system. The methodology was based on input/output data evaluation, risk prioritization based on real data, and feedback to the beekeeper based on the potential risks. Based on the results, the most significant risks are related to bad weather conditions, varroa mites, and bee colony health. Furthermore, the beekeeper is able to optimize the whole management, operations, and strategic planning throughout the year. Last, it should be noted that the presented remote monitoring system will never substitute the necessity of traditional beekeeper visits, but it contributes to minimizing them based on the monitored daily data. Full article

Rice cultivation in the low-lying basin-like wetlands, known as the Haor, is often affected by early flash floods during the first two weeks of April. The flooding is mainly caused by heavy rainfall and water surging downstream from the Meghalaya hills in India. This flash flood poses a significant threat to rice production, risking the country’s food security. Dry winter (Boro) rice is the primary food source throughout the year in the Haor region. Flash floods are the most catastrophic, affecting about 80% or even the entire rice yield. In 2017, a loss of 0.88 million metric tons of Boro rice in Haor regions cost the nation USD 450 million. To escape flash floods, it is recommended to sow Boro rice earlier, between the last week of October and the first week of November, instead of around 15 November so rice may be harvested by the last week of March before the onset of flash floods. However, early sowing has a possibility of causing grain sterility due to cold spells when the booting and heading stages of rice inevitably coincide with the cold period between 15 January and 7 February. The minimum temperature in the Haor regions ranges from 11 to 15 °C during this time. Rice is especially susceptible to low average temperatures (<20 °C) during the reproductive stage, leading to pollen abortion and the malformation of immature microspores. Low temperatures mainly impact rice cultivation in Haor regions during the reproductive phase, resulting in the degeneration of the spikelets, partial panicle exertion, and increased spikelet sterility, leading to a decrease in grain yield. Over two million hectares of Boro rice have been damaged by extreme cold spells in recent years, resulting in partial or total yield loss. To overcome the threats of flash floods and cold injury, breeding short-duration and cold-tolerant rice varieties is crucial. We assume that an economic benefit of USD 230 million per year could be achieved through the development and adoption of short-duration and cold-tolerant high-yielding rice varieties in the Haor regions of the country. In this review article, the authors summarized the problems and outline a way forward to overcome the flash flood and cold injury of Boro rice cultivation in the Haor districts of the country. Furthermore, the authors discussed the various forms and scenarios of cold damage and the global existence of cold-tolerant rice cultivars. Based on the available data from earlier research, a potential way of mitigating flash floods and cold devastation was suggested. Full article

Honeybees pollinate over 75% of the total food resources produced annually, and they produce valuable hive products, such as bee pollen, propolis, and royal jelly. However, species such as the Asian hornet (Vespa velutina) feed on more than 85% of honeybees, causing a decline in their population and considerable damage to beekeepers in Korea. To prevent damage to honeybees, a portable real-time monitoring system was developed that detects V. velutina individuals and notifies users of their presence. This system was designed with a focus on portability and ease of installation, as V. velutina can be found in various areas of apiary sites. To detect V. velutina, an improved convolutional neural network YOLOv5s was trained on 1960 high-resolution ($3840\times 2160$) image data. At the confidence threshold of ≥0.600 and intersection over the union of ≥0.500, the performance of the system in terms of detection accuracy, precision, recall, F1 score, and mean average precision was high. A distance-based performance comparison showed that the system was able to detect V. velutina individuals while monitoring three beehives. During a field test of monitoring three beehives, the system could detect 83.3% of V. velutina during their hunting activities and send alarms to registered mobile application users. Full article

Bee pollens are potential functional food ingredients as they contain essential nutrients and a wide range of bioactive compounds. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of enrichment with monofloral bee pollens on the nutritional properties, techno-functional parameters, sensory profile, and consumer preference of biscuits. Biscuits were prepared according to the AACC-approved method by substituting wheat flour with pollens of rapeseed (Brassica napus L.), phacelia (Phacelia tanacetifolia Benth.) and sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.) at 2%, 5% and 10% levels. The macronutrient composition of the biscuits was determined: crude protein content (Kjeldahl method), crude fat content (Soxhlet extraction), ash content (carbonization), moisture content (drying), carbohydrate content (formula). Their total phenolic content (TPC) and in vitro antioxidant capacity (FRAP, TEAC, DPPH) were determined spectrophotometrically. The colour of the biscuits was measured using a tristimulus-based instrument, and their texture was characterized by using a texture analyser. Sensory profile of biscuits was determined by qualitative descriptive analysis (QDA). The consumer acceptance and purchase intention of the biscuits were also evaluated, based on the responses of 100 consumers. Additionally, an external preference map was created to illustrate the relationship between consumer preference and the sensory profile of the biscuits, and penalty analysis was conducted to identify directions for product development. Phacelia pollen appeared to be the most effective for improving the nutritional quality of biscuits. The addition of phacelia pollen at the 10% substitution level increased the protein content and TPC of the control biscuit by 21% and 145%, respectively. Significant changes (p < 0.05) were also observed regarding the colour and texture of biscuits. The results of the QDA revealed that biscuits containing pollens of different botanical sources have heterogeneous sensory attributes. The biscuit containing sunflower pollen at the 2% substitution level was preferred the most (overall liking = 6.9 ± 1.6), and purchase intentions were also the highest for this product. Based on the results of the present study, it is recommended to use sunflower pollen for developing pollen-enriched foods in the future. Full article

Bee pollen as a nutrient-rich functional food has been considered for use as an adjuvant for chronic disease therapy. However, bee pollen can trigger food-borne allergies, causing a great concern to food safety. Our previous study demonstrated that the combined use of cellulase, pectinase and papain can hydrolyze allergens into peptides and amino acids, resulting in reduced allergenicity of bee pollen based on in vitro assays. Herein, we aimed to further explore the mechanisms behind allergenicity alleviation of enzyme-treated bee pollen through a BALB/c mouse model. Results showed that the enzyme-treated bee pollen could mitigate mice scratching frequency, ameliorate histopathological injury, decrease serum IgE level, and regulate bioamine production. Moreover, enzyme-treated bee pollen can modulate metabolic pathways and gut microbiota composition in mice, further supporting the alleviatory allergenicity of enzyme-treated bee pollen. The findings could provide a foundation for further development and utilization of hypoallergenic bee pollen products. Full article

Legumes, including lentil, are a valuable source of carbohydrates, fiber, protein and vitamins and minerals. Their nutritional characteristics have been associated with a reduction in the incidence of various cancers, HDL cholesterol, type 2 diabetes and heart disease. Among these quality parameters, lectins have been associated with reducing certain forms of cancer, activating innate defense mechanisms and managing obesity. Protease inhibitors such as trypsin and chymotrypsin inhibitors have been demonstrated to reduce the incidence of certain cancers and demonstrate potent anti-inflammatory properties. Angiotensin I-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitor has been associated with a reduction in hypertension. Therefore, legumes, including lentils, should be part of our daily food intake. However, high temperatures at the terminal stage is a major abiotic constraint leading to a reduction in lentil yield and seed quality. Thus, the selection of heat-tolerant genotypes is essential to identifying the potential for high yields with stable performance. To select lentil genotypes, an experiment was conducted with 60 genotypes including local landraces, advanced breeding lines, commercial varieties and exotic germplasm under stress and non-stress conditions from 2019 to 2020. This study was followed by a subset study involving screening based on a few physicochemical parameters and reproductive traits along with field performances. Different tolerance indices (i.e., stress susceptible index (SSI), relative heat index (RHI), tolerance (TOL), mean productivity (MP), stress tolerance index (STI), geometric mean productivity (GMP), yield index (YI), yield stability index (YSI), heat-resistance index (HRI), modified stress-tolerance index (MSTI), abiotic tolerance index (ATI) and stress susceptibility percentage (SSPI)) were used for the selection of the genotypes along with field performance. Biplot analysis was further performed for choosing the most suitable indices. Based on principal components analysis, the GMP, MP, RRI, STI, YI, YSI, ATI and MSTI indices were identified as the most reliable stress indicators, and these indicators might be used for distinguishing heat-tolerant genotypes. Based on the stress indices, the genotypes BLX 05002-3, BLX 10002-20, LRIL-21-1-1-1-1, LRIL-21-1-1-1-1-6 and BLX 09015 were selected as the most stable and heat-tolerant genotypes. In contrast, the genotypes LG 198, Bagura Local, BLX 0200-08-4, RL-12-178, Maitree, 91517 and BLX 11014-8 were selected as the most heat sensitive. Data also exhibited an average yield reduction of 59% due to heat stress on the lentils. Moreover, eight heat-tolerant (HT) genotypes (BLX 09015, PRECOZ, LRL-21-112-1-1-1-1-6, BLX 05002-3, LR-9-25, BLX 05002-6, BARI Masur-8 and RL-12-181), and two heat-susceptible (HS) genotypes (BLX 12009-6, and LG 198) were selected from the screened genotypes and subjected to further analysis by growing them in the following year under similar conditions to investigate the mechanisms associated with heat tolerance. Comparative studies on reproductive function and physiochemical traits revealed significantly higher pollen viability, proline accumulation, relative water content, chlorophyll concentration and a lower membrane stability index in HT genotypes under heat stress. Therefore, these heat-tolerant genotypes could be used as the parents in the hybridization program for achieving heat-tolerant transgressive segregation. Full article

Honey is a natural substance produced by bees of the genus Apis. Depending on the raw material used for its production, honey can be classified into two large groups: blossom honey, which results from the metabolization of nectar extracted from flowers; and honeydew honey, in which bees use plant or insect secretions for its production. The physicochemical characteristics are different between these two types of honey. For example, honeydew honey is darker and is characterized by a high content of phenolic acids. On the contrary, blossom honey stands out for its abundance of flavonoids. Blossom honey can be also classified based on the pollen origin. Thus, honey with more than 45% of the pollen coming from the same species can be considered monofloral; otherwise, it is considered multifloral. Honey is one of the food products with the highest level of fraudulent practices. Most of the adulterations consist of ingredient dilution, adding sweet substances, such as syrups, sugar cane, or corn syrup, among others. In the market, this was reflected in the dubious drop in prices for this product. In the last few years, several instance of honey fraud have come to light. This work aimed to develop a non-targeted ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography–high-resolution mass spectrometry (UHPLC–HRMS) fingerprinting method to address the characterization, classification, and authentication of Spanish honey samples considering their botanical and geographical origin. A total of 136 kinds of honey from different Spanish production regions belonging to different botanical varieties were analyzed, including: blossom honey (orange blossom, rosemary, thyme, eucalyptus, and heather) and honeydew honey (holm oak, forest, and mountain). A simple sample treatment was carried out, consisting of dissolving 1 g of honey in 10 mL of water, followed by a 1:1 dilution with methanol. The chromatographic separation of the obtained extracts was performed using a Kinetex^® C-18 core–shell column (100 × 4.6 mm I.D., 2.6 μm), working under gradient elution, using an aqueous solution of 0.1% formic acid and acetonitrile as the mobile phase components. HRMS acquisition was performed using electrospray in negative ionization mode (−2500 V) in an LTQ-Orbitrap working in full scan MS (m/z 100–1000) at a resolution of 50,000 full-width at half maximum (FWHM). The obtained non-targeted UHPLC–HRMS fingerprints (peak signals as a function of retention time and m/z) were considered as chemical descriptors of the analyzed honey samples for principal component analysis (PCA) and partial least squares-discriminant analysis (PLS-DA). PLS-DA revealed good discrimination between blossom and honeydew honey. Furthermore, the obtained chemometric models allowed the achievement of very good classification among the different botanical varieties under study for both blossom and honeydew honey. The discrimination of honey regarding the different Spanish climate production regions was more limited, although some trends were observed. Thus, the non-targeted UHPLC–HRMS fingerprinting approach proved to be an appropriate methodology to address honey characterization, classification, and authentication based on their different botanical origin. Full article

Honey and other bee products have been used for food and therapeutic purposes since ancient times. There are many varieties of honey with time-proven therapeutic properties, used in both traditional and modern medicine, along with various beekeeping products. In this study, conducted based on the dissemination of a questionnaire with 43 questions, an evaluation of the consumption of different types of honey for both food and therapeutic purposes was carried out. Hence, the frequency of the consumption of honey for food purposes was evaluated, as well as the pharmaceutical forms of honey and bee products utilized for therapeutic purposes, the population’s trust in their therapeutic potential, and their trust in the quality of bee products among the Romanian population. After processing the data, 917 responses were recorded, and it was found that the preferred types of honey were black locust (83.5%), multi-floral (81.9%), and linden (74.9%), and among the other bee products, the most consumed were propolis (44.2%) and bee pollen (29.2%). Regarding the use of honey as a sweetener, the majority of the respondents considered honey to be the healthiest option (81.7%), and regarding the use of honey for therapeutic purposes, most of the respondents stated that they used honey to strengthen the immune system (65.4%), as well as for skin treatment, laxative action, or energizing. The centralization and processing of the collected responses indicated a considerable level of readiness related to the increase in honey consumption in particular, but there is a need for the dissemination of effective information related to the nutritional and therapeutic value of beekeeping products to the population. Full article

Nectar is a complex biochemical substance secreted with particular rhythm by flower nectaries. Nectar is the base of a mutualism in which pollinators consume nectar, as food source, and are involuntarily responsible for the transport of pollen and pollination. The dynamics and temporal patterns of nectar secretion are still not fully understood as well as the environmental and climatic factors influencing its production. The quantity and quality of nectar found in standing crops at flowering influence the mutualistic relationship with pollinators and their foraging behavior. This situation is even more significant considering the reduction in undisturbed environments, the loss of soil quality, the spread of monoculture agricultural management and the use of self-fertile hybrids. The objects of the study are understanding the relationship among soil properties and nectar quality, comparing the nectar composition in a sunflower hybrid variety and evaluate pollinator preferences in selecting nectar sources among hybrid and non-hybrid varieties. For these purposes, two different experimental tests were established. Results highlighted that fertilization strategy influenced crop biomass development, determined soil characteristics and nectar composition in Sunflower. However, when comparing nectar composition of hybrid and non-hybrid varieties of sunflower, no significant differences were found. Despite this, the analysis of number of visits on the two treatments showed statistically significant differences. This research provides further understanding of the very complex relationship among soil, crop and nectar to support the definition of agricultural management strategies and reach the optimal nectar composition level for pollinators in agricultural crops. Full article

Honey is a natural food product well known for its high nutritional value. Apart from sugars, it contains phytochemicals, including polyphenols and flavonoids, that are compounds with highly demonstrated antimicrobial and antioxidant capacities. The main goal of this work is the development of an analytical methodology to obtain the polyphenolic profile of honeys from different varieties and pollen sources. To isolate the target compounds from the samples, miniaturized vortex (VE) and ultrasound-assisted extraction (UAE) employing aqueous solvent followed by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) were employed. The results revealed that more than 20 different polyphenols were detected in the analyzed samples among the 40-targeted compounds, reaching total concentrations up to hundreds of µg g⁻¹. Other indexes such as the total polyphenolic content (TPC) and antioxidant activity (AA) were also evaluated by spectrophotometric techniques. ANOVA and PCA based on the results from TPC, AA and individual polyphenol concentrations showed that significant differences appeared depending on the honey variety, being several of the identified polyphenols, especially hydroxycinnamic acids, responsible for the main differentiation. The results also revealed that two components were enough to explain more than 90% of variance and honey classification in six different groups. Having regard to the occurence and concentrations of individual polyphenols, it is shown that the combination of chromatographic analysis, mass spectrometry detection and PCA are suitable tools to investigate the botanical authentication of honey. Full article