Major royal jelly proteins as markers of authenticity and quality of honey / Glavni proteini matične mliječi kao markeri izvornosti i kakvoće meda

Abstract

Until now, the properties of honey have been defined based exclusively on the content of plant components in the nectar of given plant. We showed that apalbumin1, the major royal jelly (RJ) protein, is an authentic and regular component of honey. Apalbumin1 and other RJ proteins and peptides are responsible for the immunostimulatory properties and antibiotic activity of honey. For the quantification of apalbumin1, an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was developed using polyclonal anti-apalbumin1 antibody. The method is suitable for honey authenticity determination; moreover it is useful for detection of the honey, honeybee pollen and RJ in products of medicine, pharmacy, cosmetics, and food industry, where presences of these honeybee products are declared. Results from the analysis for presence and amount of apalbumin1 in honeys will be used for high-throughput screening of honey samples over the world. On the basis of our experiments which show that royal jelly proteins are regular and physiologically active components of honey we propose to change the definition of honey (according to the EU Honey Directive 2001/110/EC) as follows: Honey is a natural sweet substance produced by honey bees from nectar of plants or from secretions of plants, or excretions of plant sucking insects, which honey bees collect, transform by combining with major royal jelly proteins and other specific substances of their own, deposit, dehydrate, store and leave in the honey comb to ripen and mature. Do sada su svojstva meda bila definirana isključivo na temelju sadržaja komponenti nektara određene biljke. Mi smo pokazali da je apalbumin1, glavni protein matične mliječi, izvoran i uobičajeni sastojak meda. Apalbumin1, ostali proteini matične mliječi i peptidi odgovorni su za imunostimulatorna svojstva i antibiotsko djelovanje meda. Korištenjem poliklonalnog anti-apalbumin 1 protutijela osmišljen je imunoenzimski test (ELISA) za kvantifikaciju apalbumina 1. Metoda je ne samo prikladna za utvrđivanje izvornosti meda nego i korisna za detekciju meda, peluda i matične mliječi u medicinskim, farmaceutskim, kozmetičkim i prehrambenim proizvodima na kojima je naznačena prisutnost pčelinjih proizvoda. Rezultati analize prisutnosti i količine apalbumina 1 koristit će se za probir velike količine uzoraka meda diljem svijeta. Na temelju naših eksperimenata, koji pokazuju da su proteini matične mliječi uobičajene i fiziološki aktivne komponente meda, predlažemo izmjenu definicije meda (na temelju Direktive EU-a o medu 2001/110/EC): Med je prirodna slatka tvar koju pčele proizvode od nektara ili izlučevina biljaka ili izlučevina insekata koji sišu biljke. Nju pčele skupljaju, pretvaraju kombinacijom glavnih proteina matične mliječi i ostalih vlastitih specifičnih tvari, polažu, dehidriraju, pohranjuju i ostavljaju u saću da sazrije.