Ranieri Annamaria, Benelli Giovanni, Castagna Antonella, Sgherri Cristina, Signorini Francesca, Bientinesi Matteo, Nicolella Cristiano, Canale Angelo
Department of Agriculture, Food and Environment, University of Pisa, Via del Borghetto 80, 56124 Pisa, Italy.
Interdepartmental Research Center "Nutraceuticals and Food for Health", University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy.
Saudi J Biol Sci. 2019 Feb;26(2):252-255. doi: 10.1016/j.sjbs.2017.08.011. Epub 2017 Aug 19.
Honeybee-collected pollen is gaining attention as functional food for human consumption, due to antiproliferative, antiallergic, antibiotic, antidiarrheic and antioxidant activities. Among the different bioactive compounds, flavonoids from bee-collected pollen are currently recognised as powerful antioxidant and antiradical molecules. Traditional conservation methods influence pollen organoleptic properties as well as the contents of nutrients and nutraceutical compounds. Here, freeze-drying (FD) was proposed as a novel conservation method, estimating its adequacy as drying process by the evaluation of changes in free and total amino acids and proline as well as in their ratios. Honeybee-collected chestnut pollen was taken into consideration and the level of rutin, as main flavonoid, was considered as marker compound highlighting the maintenance of pollen nutraceutical properties. Results showed that FD influenced rutin level, depending on the FD duration. However, the free proline to free amino acid ratio was always below 80%, and the free amino acid to total amino acid ratio remained unaltered indicating the adequacy of the FD treatment, which did not affect the nutritional value of chestnut pollen. Overall, this study shed light on the nutraceutical profile of honeybee-collected chestnut pollen, highlighting the promising potential of FD as a novel method to treat pollen for human consumption.
蜜蜂采集的花粉因其具有抗增殖、抗过敏、抗菌、止泻和抗氧化活性，作为供人类食用的功能性食品正受到关注。在不同的生物活性化合物中，蜜蜂采集花粉中的黄酮类化合物目前被认为是强大的抗氧化和抗自由基分子。传统的保存方法会影响花粉的感官特性以及营养成分和营养化合物的含量。在此，提出冷冻干燥（FD）作为一种新的保存方法，通过评估游离氨基酸、总氨基酸和脯氨酸的变化及其比例来估计其作为干燥过程的适宜性。研究考虑了蜜蜂采集的板栗花粉，并将主要黄酮类化合物芦丁的含量作为突出花粉营养特性维持情况的标记化合物。结果表明，冷冻干燥会影响芦丁含量，这取决于冷冻干燥的持续时间。然而，游离脯氨酸与游离氨基酸的比例始终低于80%，游离氨基酸与总氨基酸的比例保持不变，表明冷冻干燥处理是适宜的，不会影响板栗花粉的营养价值。总体而言，本研究揭示了蜜蜂采集的板栗花粉的营养特性，突出了冷冻干燥作为一种处理供人类食用花粉的新方法的潜在前景。
