Improving nutrient release of wall-disrupted bee pollen with a combination of ultrasonication and high shear...

Pollen collected by honey bees contains a substantial amount of nutrients and has a high nutritive value. However, it can be difficult to digest and absorb a high level of nutrients due to the complex wall of bee pollen.

We observed that amino acids were mostly distributed inside the cell wall of lotus bee pollen, rape bee pollen, apricot bee pollen, wuweizi bee pollen, and camellia bee pollen, using time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry (TOF-SIMS). Thus, five species of bee pollen were wall disrupted with a combination of ultrasonication and high shear technique (US-HS). After the treatment, bee pollen walls were completely broken into fragments, and a large number of nutrients were released. The amino acid, fatty acid, protein, crude fat, reducing sugar, β-carotene, calcium, iron, zinc, and selenium content increased after wall disruption.

Overall, our study demonstrated that US-HS can disrupt bee pollen walls to release nutrients. Further studies are therefore being conducted to compare the digestibility and absorptivity of pollen nutrients before and after wall disruption. Time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry seems to be a reliable mapping technique for determining the distribution of food ingredients. © 2018 Society of Chemical Industry.