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

BACKGROUND: 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.

RESULTS: 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.

CONCLUSION: 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.