Search

Pot-pollen is a mixture of pollen and nectar from flowers combined with salivary substances of stingless bees, which together are fermented inside cerumen pots. As pot-pollen is rich in polyphenols, we hypothesized that dietary ingestion could modulate obesity, glucose metabolism, and the gut microbiota in an animal model of diet-induced obesity. Male C57BL/6J mice were fed a low-fat/low-sucrose diet (LF/LS), a HF/HS diet or a HF/HS diet containing 0.1% pot-pollen (HF/HS-PP) for 12 weeks. In HF/HS-fed mice, pot-pollen supplementation decreased fasting blood glucose and increased glucose-stimulated insulin secretion without modifying weight gain, body composition, glucose tolerance, and insulin sensitivity. Intake of pot-pollen resulted in changes of the gut microbiota, including a decrease in the abundance of the Rikenellaceae RC9 gut group and Lactobacillus , and an increase in the abundance of Romboutsia . Correlations between genus abundances and metabolic changes in response to supplementation indicated that the gut microbiota contributed to the positive effects of pot-pollen ingestion on fasting glucose. Pot-pollen supplementation-associated changes in the gut microbiota composition correlated with the lowering of fasting glucose levels without modulating weight gain.

To feed and provide Food Security to all people in the world is a big challenge to be achieved with the 2030 Agenda. Undernutrition and obesity are to the opposite of a healthy nutritional status. Both conditions are associated with unbalanced nutrition, absence of food or excess of non-nutritive foods intake. These two nutritional conditions associated with food production are closely related to some goals highlighted by the United Nations in the 2030 Agenda to achieve sustainable world development. In this context, the search for alternative foods whose sustainable production and high nutritional quality guarantee regular access to food for the population must be encouraged. Alternative foods can contribute to Food Security in many ways as they contribute to the local economy and income generation. Popularizing and demystifying the uses of unconventional food plants, ancestral grains, flowers, meliponiculture products, and edible insects as sources of nutrients and non-nutrients is another challenge. Herein, we present an overview of alternative foods - some of them cultivated mostly in Brazil - that can be explored as sources of nutrients to fight hunger and malnutrition, improve food production and the economic growth of nations., (Copyright © 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Background: Pot-pollen is a fermented product stored by stingless bees in cerumen pots and traditionally used as food or medicine by natives in tropical regions. Knowledge of pot-pollen composition from the Amazon region is important to strengthen the breeding of native bees and consequently contribute to sustainable development in this region. The aim of the present study was to determine the chemical composition of Melipona seminigra pot-pollen from Amazonas, Brazil., Results: We report the identification of 21 phenolic compounds using ultra-performance liquid chromatography- electrospray ionization-quadrupole time-of-flight-mass spectrometry. Overall, the predominant constituents of pot-pollen were protein (333.8-470.7 g kg -1 ) and dietary fibers (247.6-353.3 g kg -1 ). The predominant fatty acids were polyunsaturated (44.95-59.57% of total fatty acid content) and the samples contained all essential amino acids. Total carotenoid content ranged from 3.2 to 48.0 μg g -1 , total flavonoid content (as catechin equivalents) from 1.9 to 4.5 mg g -1 , total reducing capacity (as gallic acid equivalents) from 7.0 to 15.0 mg g -1 , ferric-reducing antioxidant power from 2.8 to 8.9 μmol g -1 and oxygen radical absorbance capacity (as Trolox equivalents) from 224.9 to 1117.0 μmol g -1 ., Conclusions: This study reports for the first time a comprehensive chemical characterization of M. seminigra pot-pollen. The samples presented antioxidant activity, high values of nutrients and bioactive compounds such as polyphenols, carotenoids, insoluble dietary fibers, polyunsaturated fatty acids, and essential amino acids, comparable to other health foods. © 2021 Society of Chemical Industry., (© 2021 Society of Chemical Industry.)