The impact of different fermentation parameters on antioxidant activity of bee pollen

Abstract

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. The influence of different parameters, such as temperature, pH, fermentation term, to fermentation process was determined. Free radical 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) scavenging activity, total amounts of phenolic compounds and flavonoids were evaluated by spectrophotometric methods. Fermentation of bee pollen was performed by lactic acid bacteria, namely Lactobacillus rhamnosus. Results showed that temperature range from 32°C to 37°C had no impact to fermentation and had no influence to total amount of phenolic compounds or radical scavenging activity. Changes of pH in the samples resulted the decrease of radical scavenging activity by an average of 0.8 times, but increased total amount of flavonoids by 1.7 times. Alkaline fermentation mixture resulted an increase of total phenolic compounds almost twice, but acidification had less impact and resulted an increase of total phenolic compounds by an average of 1.1 times. Control samples were not affected by changes of pH. Fermentation term had impact only on the total amount of flavonoids, which after fermentation increased significantly in all samples by 1.7 times, except samples, that were fermented only 3 days, where increase of total amount of flavonoids was only by 1.1 times.