The impact of lactic acid bacteria fermentation on phytochemical composition of bee pollen

Abstract

Bee bread is the bee pollen with added honey and bee secretions and stored in the comb. Natural fermentation of pollen in beehive lasts for a few months. The biological value of some medicinal plants increases after lactic acid fermentation, but there is no literature data about the artificially fermented pollen collected by bees. The aim of this study was to get product similar to the bee bread, which has higher biological value compared to the natural bee pollen. Fermentation of bee pollen was performed by lactic acid bacteria, namely Lactobacillus rhamnosus and Lactobacillus delbruleckii. The influence of different parameters (medium composition, pH, temperature, duration) to fermentation process was determined. Free radical 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) scavenging activity and total amounts of phenolic compounds and flavonoids were evaluated using spectrophotometric methods.