Affiliation:
1. Department of Bee Research Plant Protection Research Institute Agricultural Research Centre Giza 12627 Egypt
2. Psychiatry and Neurology Department, Capio Saint Göran's Hospital Sankt Göransplan 1 112 19 Stockholm Sweden
3. Zoology Department College of science King Saud University Riyadh Saudi Arabia
4. State Key Laboratory of Resource Insects Institute of Apicultural Research Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences Beijing 100093 China
5. School of Food Science and Technology National Engineering Research Center of Seafood Dalian Polytechnic University Dalian 116024 China
6. College of Marine Sciences Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University Fuzhou 350002 China
7. Agricultural Product Processing and Storage Lab School of Food and Biological Engineering Jiangsu University Zhenjiang Jiangsu 212013 China
8. Department of Chemistry Quaid-I-Azam University Islamabad 45320 Pakistan
9. Department of Bioorganic Chemistry Leibniz Institute of Plant Biochemistry Weinberg 3 06120 Halle (Saale) Germany
10. School of Food and Biological Engineering Jiangsu University Zhenjiang 212013 China
11. Department of Chemistry Faculty of Science Islamic University of Madinah Madinah 42351 Saudi Arabia
Abstract
AbstractA lesser‐known bee product called drone brood homogenate (DBH, apilarnil) has recently attracted scientific interest for its chemical and biological properties. It contains pharmacologically active compounds that may have neuroprotective, antioxidant, fertility‐enhancing, and antiviral effects. Unlike other bee products, the chemical composition of bee drone larva is poorly studied. This study analyzed the chemical compostion of apilarnil using several methods. These included liquid chromatography‐mass spectrometry (LC‐MS/MS) and a combination of gas chromatography/mass spectrometry with solid phase micro‐extraction (SPME/GC‐MS). Additionally, antioxidant activity of the apilarnil was assessed using 2,2‐diphenyl‐1‐picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) assay. A chemical assessment of apilarnil showed that it has 6.3±0.00, 74.67±0.10 %, 3.65±0.32 %, 8.80±1.01 %, 13.16±0.94 %, and 8.79±0.49 % of pH, moisture, total lipids, proteins, flavonoids, and carbohydrates, respectively. LC‐MS/MS analysis and molecular networking (GNPS) of apilarnil exhibited 44 compounds, including fatty acids, flavonoids, glycerophospholipids, alcohols, sugars, amino acids, and steroids. GC‐MS detected 30 volatile compounds in apilarnil, mainly esters (24 %), ketones (23.84 %), ethers (15.05 %), alcohols (11.41 %), fatty acids (10.06), aldehydes (6.73 %), amines (5.46), and alkene (5.53 %). The antioxidant activity of apilarnil was measured using DPPH with an IC50 of 179.93±2.46 μg/ml.