The minerals content of honey from stingless bee Tetragonula laeviceps from different regions in Indonesia

Ardo Sabir, Ali Agus¹, Muhamad Sahlan² and Agussalim¹

Department of Conservative Dentistry, Faculty of Dentistry, Hasanuddin University, Jl. Perintis Kemerdekaan KM 10, Tamalanrea, Makassar, 90245, Indonesia
ardo.sabir@yahoo.com
¹ Faculty of Animal Science, Universitas Gadjah Mada, Jl. Fauna 3, Bulaksumur, Yogyakarta - 55281, Indonesia
² Department of Chemical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, University of Indonesia, Depok, West Java 16424, Indonesia

Abstract

The objective of this study was to determine the minerals and ash content of honey from stingless bee Tetragonula laeviceps from different regions for meliponiculture. Honey was obtained from three regions were Lombok (West Nusa Tenggara Province), Magelang (Central Java Province), and Purworejo (Central Java Province). The minerals content of honey was analyzed were Ca, Cu, Fe, Mg, Mn, Na, K, Zn, and Al using atomic absorption spectrometry (AAS) method. The results showed that minerals content of honey from Lombok was higher than the minerals content of honey from Magelang and Purworejo especially for Cu, Fe, Mg, Na, and K (P<0.01), but not on the Ca, Mn and Al. In addition, the mineral Zn of honey from Lombok and Magelang was similar but was higher than the mineral Zn of honey from Purworejo (P<0.05). Thus, it can be concluded, honey from stingless bee Tetragonula laeviceps from Lombok has minerals content was higher than minerals content of honey from Magelang and Purworejo especially for minerals Cu, Fe, Mg, Na, and K.

Keywords: atomic absorption spectrometry method, bee forage, meliponiculture, nectar

Introduction

Tetragonula laeviceps is a group of stingless bees, where in the world the number of stingless bee species has been identified are 500 species and possibly more than 100 species unidentified (Michener 2013), while in Indonesia are at least 46 species (Kahono et al 2018). In Indonesia, stingless bee Tetragonula laeviceps mostly found nesting in bamboos (Agussalim et al 2020; Erwan et al 2020; Agussalim et al 2019a; Agus et al 2019), tree trunks or woods, and in the ground (Agussalim et al 2015). Stingless bee Tetragonula laeviceps can produce honey, bee bread, and propolis as like honeybees from the genus Apis, although the production is lower. Production of honey from stingless bee Tetragonula laeviceps after meliponiculture four months is ranged 60 to 263 ml or 79.2 to 328 g (Agussalim et al 2020).

The chemical composition of honey is affected by the species of bee involved in honey production, plants types as the source of nectar to produce honey, climate (including temperature and humidity), processing of honey (heating process and manipulation), storage time (da Silva et al 2016), and geographical origin (Agus et al 2019; Agussalim et al 2019a). The chemical composition of honey from stingless bees from various countries has been studied (Ranneh et al 2018; Chuttong et al 2016; Biluca et al 2016; Suntiparapop et al 2012; Guerrini et al 2009; Oddo et al 2008; Souza et al 2006). Also, the chemical composition of honey from stingless bee Tetragonula laeviceps from Indonesia also has been studied (Agus et al 2019; Agussalim et al 2019a,b). The mineral content of honey from Indonesia stingless bees has not yet been studied but in other countries has been studied (Ávila et al 2019; Biluca et al 2017, 2016). Therefore, the objective of this study was to determine the minerals and ash content of honey from stingless bee Tetragonula laeviceps from different regions in Indonesia for meliponiculture.

Materials and methods

Honey was collected from different regions as the location for meliponiculture were Lombok (West Nusa Tenggara Province), Magelang (Central Java Province), and Purworejo (Central Java Province). For all analyses, the minerals content of honey was performed in triplicate for the three replicates except in ash content in duplicate.

Analysis of mineral content

Honey was used in this study was fresh honey and analyses minerals content using atomic absorption spectrometry (AAS) method was described by Rodríguez et al (2019), while the ash content was using the method explained by Association of Official Analytical Chemists (AOAC) (1990). As briefly the methods for the analysis of mineral content of honey was one gram of honey sample was ground and the lyophilized sample was reduced to ash for 15 h in a muffle furnace at 460 ^oC, to determine the total content of minerals. (Ca, Cu, Fe, Mg, Mn, Na, K, Zn, and Al). Once the ash was cooled, it was bleached with 2.5 mL of HNO3 2N and dried on thermostatic hotplates, until complete mineralization, for 1 h in a muffle furnace at 460°C. Afterward, the ash was dissolved in a 1 mL solution of HCl 20% (v/v) and made up to a known volume (10 mL) with deionized water.

Statistical analysis

The data minerals and ash content of honey from stingless bee Tetragonula laeviceps was analyzed by analysis of variance using SPSS (Windows version of SPSS, release 23). Significant differences between the means were identified with honestly significant difference (HSD) test (Steel et al 1997)

Results and discussions

The results of present study showed that minerals content of honey from stingless bee Tetragonula laeviceps from Lombok (West Nusa Tenggara) was higher than the minerals content of honey from Magelang and Purworejo especially for Cu, Fe, Mg, Na, and K (P<0.01), but not on the Ca, Mn, and Al (P>0.05) (Table 1). Also, the mineral Zn of honey from Lombok and Magelang was similar but was higher than the mineral Zn of honey from Purworejo (P<0.05). The ash content of honey from Lombok was higher than the ash content from Magelang and Purworejo (P<0.01) (Table 1). The higher minerals content of honey from Lombok (Cu, Fe, Mg, Na, and K) was supported by the ash content of honey from Lombok was higher than the ash content of honey from Magelang and Purworejo.

The different minerals and ash content of honey from each location for meliponiculture is also affected by the different plant types as the source of nectar to produce honey. The predominant of plants types from each region for meliponiculture shown in Table 2. The minerals and ash content are affected by the different plant types as the bee forage, geographical origin that impact on the different soil and nutrients condition (da Silva et al 2016; Karabagias et al 2014). Furthermore, the mineral content of honey related to color and flavor, where the higher mineral content causes the honey is a darker color and stronger flavor than honey with bright color (da Silva et al 2016; Karabagias et al 2014; Escuredo et al 2013). Honey from Lombok has a darker color and stronger flavor than honey from Magelang and Purworejo with bright color and less flavor.

The ash content of honey from Magelang and Purworejo which is acceptable according to the Indonesian National Standard (SNI 2018) for stingless bee honey with a maximum ash content was 0.5% (w/w), while the ash content of honey from Lombok was not accepted by the Indonesian national standard. The ash content in honey is used as an indicator to evaluate minerals in honey collected by foragers from flowers (floral nectar), honeydew, or extrafloral nectar of plants (da Silva et al 2016; Suntiparapop et al 2012). The mineral content also indicates the environmental contamination, and the geographic origin of honey because its content depends on the type of soil in which plants as the bee forage are grown (da Silva et al 2016; Karabagias et al 2014). The ash content of honey from stingless bee Tetragonula laeviceps in this study (Table 1) is different from those previously reported for stingless bees honey (Agussalim 2020; Agussalim et al 2019b; Ranneh et al 2018; Chutong et al 2016; Suntiparapop et al 2012; Oddo et al 2008; Souza et al 2006). In addition, the mineral content of honey from stingless bee Tetragonula laeviceps in this study (Table 1) is different from those previously reported for stingless bees honey (Ávila et al 2019; Biluca et al 2017, 2016).

Conclusions

Honey of stingless bee Tetragonula laeviceps from Lombok have minerals content was higher than minerals of honey from Magelang and Purworejo especially for minerals Cu, Fe, Mg, Na, and K.

Acknowledgments

This work was supported by Program Penelitian Kolaborasi Indonesia (PPKI 2020) grant from Hasanuddin University collaboration with Universitas Gadjah Mada and University of Indonesia.

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