Effects Of Sugar Sources And Production Methods On The Composition And Nutritional Potency Of Honey From Apis Cerana Cerana

With honey firmly on the rise in people’s daily lives,research into its nutritional and health functions has intensified at home and abroad.As the beekeeping industry in China is facing problems such as aging and the honey market still showing variable quality,the technology of quality honey production becomes particularly important.However,there are few studies on the quality of honey and its nutritional potency by different production and sugar sources.In this study,the effects of different production methods and sugar sources on honey quality were explored with Apis cerana.And the effects of honey obtained under these conditions on workers lifespan and learning memory ability,as well as the effects on colony offspring under different environments.It is hoped that these studies will provide theoretical support for quality honey production and scientific management of bee colonies.There are two main methods of honey production in the farming of Apis cerana,i.e.the centrifugal production(Ce H)and the pressed production(Pr H)of honey.However,whether these two production methods have an effect on the quality of honey has not been researched.In view of this,this study analyses the effects of these two production methods on the composition and nutritional potency of honey.The results showed that most physicochemical parameters were better in pressed honey than in centrifuged honey,with higher amylase activity in centrifuged honey and greater antioxidant capacity in pressed honey.In addition,cage management of worker bees with both honey samples revealed that: the worker bees in the Pr H group had a better lifespan,learning memory ability,and relative expression of learning memory genes than the Ce H group.The results showed that: the overall quality of the pressed honey was superior to that of the centrifuged honey.Apis cerana has the characteristic of collecting nectar sporadically,but during periods of nectar deficiency it is necessary to feed syrup or honey manually to colonies so that part of the feed is consumed by the bees and part of the feed is dissolved by the bees to form " sugar-sourced honey" or " flower-sourced honey".The differences in the composition and nutritional potency of sugar-sourced,flowersourced,and natural honey are not known.Therefore,in this study,colonies were fed different sugar sources and obtained different types of honey.Honey from natural colonies was used as a control to compare the physicochemical parameters and nutritional potency of the three honey samples.It was shown that the source of sugar affects the nutritional composition and potency of honey.There were no significant differences in moisture and amylase values between the three honey samples.However,most physicochemical parameters(total acidity,sugar content,and total protein content)were better in natural honey than in flower-sourced honey and sugarsourced honey,and these in flower-sourced honey were also better than in sugarsourced honey.In addition,the antioxidant ability was best in natural honey,followed by flower-sourced honey,and weakest in sugar-sourced honey.The nutritional potency of natural honey was better than that of flower-sourced honey and sugarsourced honey in terms of lifespan and learning memory ability in workers,and there was no significant difference between flower-sourced honey and sugar-sourced honey.The results showed that: the overall quality of natural honey was better than that of flower-sourced honey and sugar-sourced honey,and that the overall quality of flowersourced honey was better than that of sugar-sourced honey.There are some differences in the physicochemical parameters and nutritional potency of honey obtained from different sugar sources,but its effect on workers when feeding different sugar waters to colonies is unclear.In view of this,this study continued to investigate the effects of the three sugar sources on the offspring of the colony on the emergence of worker bees from the colony.The study found that the sugar source affects the lifespan and learning memory ability of the offspring worker bees from Apis cerana.The lifespan,learning memory ability and learning,and related gene expression of offspring workers fed sugar water were significantly lower than those of offspring workers fed honey and natural colony groups,but there was not a significant difference between workers of honey-fed colonies and those of naturally collected colonies,i.e.feeding honey was better for colony growth and reproduction than feeding sugar syrup.