Identification of melezitose and erlose in floral and honeydew honeys

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

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 δ¹³C values, to combat such potential indirect adulteration.

Volatile Profile and Physico-Chemical Analysis of Acacia Honey for Geographical Origin and Nutritional Value Determination

Honey composition and color depend greatly on the botanical and geographical origin. Water content, water activity and color of 50 declared acacia samples, collected from three different geographical zones of Romania, together with chromatographic determination of sugar spectrum were analyzed. A number of 79 volatile compounds from the classes of: Alcohols, aldehydes, esters, ketones, sulphur compounds, aliphatic hydrocarbons, nitrogen compounds, carboxylic acids, aromatic acids and ethers were identified by solid-phase micro-extraction and gas-chromatography mass spectrometry. The overall volatile profile and sugar spectrum of the investigated honey samples allow the differentiation of geographical origin for the acacia honey samples subjected to analysis. The statistical models of the chromatic determination, physicochemical parameters and volatile profile was optimal to characterize the honey samples and group them into three geographical origins, even they belong to the same botanical origin.

Biological analysis on extractives of bayberry fresh flesh by GC-MS

Bayberry has been largely planted in China, and the waste of fresh flesh of bayberry was still abandoned. Therefore, the extractives of fresh flesh of bayberry were studied to further utilize the bio-resources. Through the Foss method, the result shown that ketone, aldehyde, ester and acid compounds were accounted for 1.30, 92.61, 0.54 and 6.09% of the extractives which were extracted from fresh flesh of bayberry by methanol solvents. Aldehyde, bicyclic sesquiterpenes, acid, ester and alcohol compounds accounted for 53.74, 9.95, 28.49, 6.79 and 1.05% of the extractives which were extracted from fresh flesh of bayberry by ethanol solvents. Ketone, aldehyde, carbohydrate, acid and ester compounds accounted for 4.77, 77.95, 12.06, 4.77 and 0.44% of the extractives which were extracted from fresh flesh of bayberry by ethyl acetate solvents. The extractives of fresh flesh of bayberry were rich in rare drug and biomedical activities and the ethanol is more better to extract the fresh flesh of bayberry.

Enzymatic synthesis and characterization of fructooligosaccharides and novel maltosylfructosides by inulosucrase from Lactobacillus gasseri DSM 20604

The ability of an inulosucrase (IS) from Lactobacillus gasseri DSM 20604 to synthesize fructooligosaccharides (FOS) and maltosylfructosides (MFOS) in the presence of sucrose and sucrose-maltose mixtures was investigated after optimization of synthesis conditions, including enzyme concentration, temperature, pH, and reaction time. The maximum formation of FOS, which consist of β-2,1-linked fructose to sucrose, was 45% (in weight with respect to the initial amount of sucrose) and was obtained after 24 h of reaction at 55°C in the presence of sucrose (300 g liter(-1)) and 1.6 U ml(-1) of IS-25 mM sodium acetate buffer-1 mM CaCl2 (pH 5.2). The production of MFOS was also studied as a function of the initial ratios of sucrose to maltose (10:50, 20:40, 30:30, and 40:20, expressed in g 100 ml(-1)). The highest yield in total MFOS was attained after 24 to 32 h of reaction time and ranged from 13% (10:50 sucrose/maltose) to 52% (30:30 sucrose/maltose) in weight with respect to the initial amount of maltose. Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) structural characterization indicated that IS from L. gasseri specifically transferred fructose moieties of sucrose to either C-1 of the reducing end or C-6 of the nonreducing end of maltose. Thus, the trisaccharide erlose [α-d-glucopyranosyl-(1→4)-α-d-glucopyranosyl-(1→2)-β-d-fructofuranoside] was the main synthesized MFOS followed by neo-erlose [β-d-fructofuranosyl-(2→6)-α-d-glucopyranosyl-(1→4)-α-d-glucopyranose]. The formation of MFOS with a higher degree of polymerization was also demonstrated by the transfer of additional fructose residues to C-1 of either the β-2,1-linked fructose or the β-2,6-linked fructose to maltose, revealing the capacity of MFOS to serve as acceptors.

Sugar-meal sources used by female black flies (Diptera: Simuliidae): a four-habitat study

Adult black flies were sampled by sweep-netting vegetation in four habitats within Algonquin Provincial Park, Ontario: Davies Bog, the airfield, deciduous habitat, and coniferous habitat. Sugars in the crops and midguts of female flies (n = 773) were tested by thin-layer chromatography to determine whether the flies had fed on nectar or homopteran honeydew. Melezitose and stachyose were used as honeydew-indicator sugars. For Simulium venustum, it was found that significantly fewer black flies (19%) from the airfield contained honeydew sugars than black flies from the other three sites (34% from Davies Bog; 36% from deciduous habitat; 25% from coniferous habitat). We argue that black flies will feed on nectar or honeydew according to availability.