The Possibility of Using Bee Drone Brood to Design Novel Dietary Supplements for Apitherapy

Abstract

Drone brood is a little-known bee product, often treated as beekeeping waste or natural varroosis bait. Obtaining drone brood from beehives does not weaken the bee family, which is why this product is used as natural medicine in Eastern European countries. The main objective of this work was to design an innovative dietary supplement containing freeze-dried drone brood (DB) enriched with calcium ions (3:1). As the calcium component, inorganic calcium carbonate (CC) and ground chicken eggshells (ES) were used. Bioaccessibility of hormones, selected nutrients (proteins and amino acids), non-nutritive polyphenols from pure drone brood (DB), and designed supplements (DB + CC, DB + ES) were analyzed using an in vitro gastrointestinal system. It was shown that drone brood components are better bioaccessible from the DB + ES compared to DB + CC and DB capsules. An increase was achieved by up to 93.33%, 21.29%, 105.14%, and 52.34% for testosterone, estradiol, calcium, and polyphenols, respectively. Drone brood proteins were completely digested to free amino acids which was confirmed by SDS-PAGE electrophoresis and high-performance thin layer chromatography (HPTLC). Due to the demonstrated synergistic action of drone brood and the calcium of eggshells, the newly proposed two-ingredient supplement seems to be an efficient treatment to equalize hormonal and calcium deficiency in osteoporosis; however, its application requires further studies.