Physicochemical and Nutritional Composition of Pot-pollen of Stingless bee Melipona beecheii in Yucatan, Mexico

The stingless bee Melipona beecheii, known as “Xunan Kab” in the Mayan language, is the only species that has been domesticated by the Mayans since immemorial time. Pot-pollen is collected, processed, and stored by stingless bees, in cerumen containers, which is used for its nutritional value in the larval and human diets. It is made up of natural floral pollen mixed with nectar and bee secretions, and fermented by microbes associated with stingless bees. The proximal analysis of the pot-pollen on a dry basis showed moisture, protein, fat, and ash content of 35.59 %, 36.9 %, 12.65 %, and 1.87 % respectively. The aminoacids analysis of pot-pollen proteins showed a high content of essential aminoacids such as leucine, methionine, threonine, valine among others. The methanolic extract of pot-pollen as well as its corresponding hexane and chloroform fractions presented antibacterial activity against Listeria monocytogenes and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Additionally, eleven metabolites were identified from the hexane and chloroform fraction of pot-pollen, palmitic acid (1), γ-sitosterol or β-sitosterol (2), myristic acid (3), 5-octadecene (4), 9-octadecene (5), pentadecanoic acid, 14-methyl, methyl ester (6), palmitic acid, 1,1-dimethylethyl ester (7), dotriacontane (8), heptadecane (9), stearic acid butyl ester (10), and 2-methyltetracosane (11). Pot-pollen from Melipona beecheii is a superfood with a high nutritional value due to its high content of protein with a good percentage of essential aminoacids, fatty acids composition and metabolites with antimicrobial activity.