Encyclopedia
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Bee pollen is a natural cocktail of floral nectar, flower pollen, enzymes, and salivary secretions produced by honeybees. Bee pollen is one of the bee products most enriched in proteins, polysaccharides, polyphenols, lipids, minerals, and vitamins. It has a significant health and medicinal impact and provides protection against many diseases, including diabetes, cancer, infectious, and cardiovascular. Bee pollen is commonly promoted as a cost-effective functional food.
- bee pollen
- diseases
- functional foods
1. Introduction
Consumer expectations of natural products have been rising due to their proven nutritional value. Food manufacturers are also responding to the health trend of “you are what you eat”, especially in the areas of functional and health-beneficial products, for both prevention and treatment. The honeybee (Apis mellifera L.) produces several beneficial entities, including honey, propolis, royal jelly, bee venom, bee pollen, beehive air, and beebread. These products have been used in traditional medicine for thousands of years, and there is increasing interest in their application in modern medicine [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9].
Bee pollen is a combination of floral nectar, flower pollen, and enzymes, as well as salivary secretions from honeybees [4]. It contains a wide range of secondary metabolites, including proteins, carbohydrates, fatty acids, vitamins, polyphenols, phytosterols, carotenoid pigments, enzymes, and co-enzymes. Pollen’s secondary metabolites have antibacterial, antioxidant, anti-atherosclerotic, anticancer, antiallergenic, anti-fungicidal, chemopreventive, hepatoprotective, and immunomodulatory effects [10][12].
Bee pollen has played a role in combating metabolic disorders such as diabetes, obesity, hyper-dyslipidemia, and related cardiovascular complications [4].
In addition to the nutritive value of bee pollen, it also has a physicochemical composition (water, protein, and lipid content) and techno-functional properties (protein solubility, carbohydrate solubility, and emulsifying ability) that facilitate its food application. Additionally, its capacity to absorb oil allows it to function as a flavor retainer and mouthfeel enhancer, and contribute to consistency characteristics and the creation of product structures [11][13].
Bee pollen products have recently been developed as granules, pills, candy bars, oral liquids, and human tonics [12][14]. The natural antioxidant capacity of bee pollen enhances food preservation via the prevention of lipid oxidation [13][15]. Bee pollen is recognized as a medicinal commodity in Germany [14][16]. The usage of bee pollen in yogurt increases the shelf life and improves its appearance, taste, odor, and cohesiveness [15][17].
Moreover, bee pollen could be used in the cosmetic field, protecting cells from abnormal melanogenesis in skin disorders, and eliminating age spots, freckles, melasma, and malignant melanoma [16][18].
2. Application of Bee Pollen
2.1. Prostatitis Diseases
Prostatitis, or inflammation of the prostate, is a common condition that can be caused by bacterial or non-bacterial pathogenic causes [17][40]. In an in vivo study, pollen was found to have the ability to suppress various inflammatory pathways, including nuclear factor kappa-light-chain-enhancer of activated B cells (NF-κB), prostaglandin E2 (PGE2), and malondialdehyde (MDA) [17][40]. Brassica campestris pollen could help rats with prostate hyperplasia by affecting the expression of miRNAs including rno-miR184, which rose as the prostate improved [18][41]. In addition, four weeks of administration of bee pollen or date palm suspension (100 mg/kg) improved male reproductive parameters such as testis weight, testosterone, luteinizing hormone (LH) and follicle stimulating hormone (FSH), as well as spermatogenesis, motility, and viability, in STZ-induced diabetic Wistar male rats [19][42]. As stated Figure 1, sixteen patents were filed between 1994 and 2021 on the use of bee pollen to improve prostate function, in the form of tablets, capsules, suspensions, powders, drops, and solutions. The composition includes bee pollen coupled with other natural sources (e.g., plants and bee products). The formulations can be used to treat several disorders associated with prostatic hyperplasia by reducing the prostate volume and alleviating lower urinary tract symptoms. The formulation is used for reducing the effects of prostate inflammation on male sexual function and enhancing male sexual function [20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][43,44,45,46,47,48,49,50,51,52,53,54,55,56,57,58].Figure 1. Bee pollen patent applications.
2.2. Diabetes Disease β
Bee pollen contains phenols and flavonoids, which inhibit carbohydrate-hydrolyzing enzymes such as amylase and glucosidase, as well as carbohydrate absorption in the small intestine, and decrease blood glucose levels significantly (Figure 1). Furthermore, postprandial blood glucose levels were lower after bee pollen intake [36][59]. In mice with diabetes mellitus, oral administration of pectic bee pollen polysaccharide from Rosa rugosa Thunb (Rosaceae) (RBPP-P) improved diabetic symptoms and protected the pancreas (Type 1). RBPP-P increased insulin secretion and functions through the stimulation of key transcription factors MafA and Pdx1 in cells. RBPP-P also increased β-cell proliferation, and upregulated the phosphorylation levels of p38, ERK, and AKT [37][60]. The phenolic compounds from bee pollen Camellia sinensis L. extract, including 3-O-[2′,6′-di-O-(trans-p-coumaroyl)-β-D-glucopyranosyl]kaempferol, 3-O-[6′-O-(trans-p-coumaroyl)-β-D-glucopyranosyl]kaempferol, and gallic acid (GA), had a hypoglycemic effect for patients with type 2 diabetes. Through interactions with glucose transporters, the three phenolic compounds decrease glucose absorption and transport. In addition, molecular docking showed that phenolic compounds have the ability to form hydrogen bonds with D-glucose and amino acids [38][61].
