Feeding Sugars to Stingless Bees: Identifying the Origin of Trehalulose-Rich Honey Composition

Abstract

The beneficial disaccharide, trehalulose, is a feature of stingless bee honey, while not dominant in any other foods. By experimentally feeding sugar solutions to confined colonies of the Australian stingless bee Tetragonula carbonaria, the origin of trehalulose has now been established. Complete conversion of fed sucrose was observed, by analysis of the honey, forming trehalulose (64–72%) with lesser erlose (18–23%), fructose (9–12%), and minor glucose detected. Remarkably, feeding solutions of glucose/fructose (1:1) mixtures did not result in trehalulose/erlose formation. Hence, stingless bees with natural access to floral nectar high in sucrose will produce honey high in trehalulose, with its associated beneficial properties. Any temptation to artificially increase trehalulose content by feeding sucrose to stingless bees would produce “fake” honey lacking key natural phytochemicals available to the foraging bee. The sucrose-fed fake and natural honey were however readily distinguished via isotope ratio mass spectrometry δ 13C values, to combat such potential indirect adulteration.

Effect of harvest time span on physicochemical properties, antioxidant, antimicrobial, and anti‐inflammatory activities of Meliponinae honey

“…This major disaccharide in stingless bee honey was recognized as maltose previously, but now the mass spectral data and NMR analysis characterized the disaccharide as trehalulose 9 . Later on, the same research group also demonstrated that the trehalulose in honey was from the conversion of the isomer sucrose 16 . This can also explain that there are only small amounts of sucrose, or an absence, in stingless bee honey.…”

“…Glucose, fructose, maltose, and sucrose were purchased from Merck (≧99.0% purity, Taipei, Taiwan). We used the maltose to quantify trehalulose, since we had difficulty buying the standard of trehalulose (specified by Biosynth Carbosynth supplier 90% purity), 16 and the retention time of trehalulose is similar to that of maltose.…”

“…Additionally, most stingless bee honey contains a dominant disaccharide that had previously been reported to be maltose 9 . However, this disaccharide has been characterized as a trehalulose 9,16 . Stingless bees store honey in cerumen, made from plant resin, salivary secretions and wax, so this honey contains high contents of bioactive compounds with good antioxidant activity and antibacterial activity 6,17‐21 ; some bioactive compounds, such as phytochemical compounds, are directly related to botanical origins 3…”

“…9 However, this disaccharide has been characterized as a trehalulose. 9,16 Stingless bees store honey in cerumen, made from plant resin, salivary secretions and wax, so this honey contains high contents of bioactive compounds with good antioxidant activity and antibacterial activity 6,[17][18][19][20][21] ; some bioactive compounds, such as phytochemical compounds, are directly related to botanical origins. 3 Honey produced from different stingless bee species or floral origins varies considerably in its physicochemical properties, which causes difficulties in building quality control standards for stingless bee honey.…”

Impact of genus (Geotrigona,Melipona,Scaptotrigona) in the1H-NMR organic profile and authenticity test of honey processed in cerumen pots by stingless bees in Ecuador

“…For example, after feeding sucrose solutions to T. carbonaria a fake honey with (64-72) g trehalulose/100 g honey, (18-23) erlose, (9-12) fructose, and minor glucose was produced in contrast to a fructose-glucose (25:25:50W) feeding that produced a 58 g/100 g total sugars were the F:G ratio fed remained unchanged. These authors hypothesized a major trehalulose honey from stingless bees feeding high sucrose floral nectar (Hungerford et al, 2021). A feral small stingless bee Frieseomelitta aff.…”