Stingless bee honey as a unique source of trehalulose

Abstract

Stingless bees (tribe: Meliponini) are a diverse group of more than 500 known species that occur in tropical/sub-tropical regions, and are lesser known for their honey products than honeybees (Apis mellifera). Honey from stingless bees has long been prized by Indigenous communities worldwide for its health benefits.1 In contrast to honeybees, a stingless beehive produces less than one kilogram per year, making it a rare resource, and valuable to the bees as food for themselves and their larvae. In warmer climates, the hive can produce excess honey,2 and when harvested, stingless bee honey is valued for its depth of flavour. We tested stingless bee honey from 5 species, two from Australia, two from Malaysia and one from Brazil and found high levels of an unusual disaccharide, which was isolated, examined by LC-MS/MS and NMR and identified as the sucrose isomer, trehalulose. Analysis by high performance ion chromatography with pulsed amperometric detection of 36 honey samples from Australian and Malaysian species showed that the amount of trehalulose ranged from 17 – 58 g/100 g honey, present together with fructose and glucose. New work aims to understand the origin of this disaccharide in stingless bee honey and to provide an understanding of how to optimise the levels present in the honey. Trehalulose has not been identified as a major component in any other food. As such, the presence of trehalulose will increase the value of stingless bee honey due to the disaccharide’s known bioactive properties.