Unravelling the beehive air volatiles profile as analysed via solid-phase microextraction (SPME) and chemometrics

Aida A. Abd El-Wahed; Mohamed A. Farag; Walaa A. Eraqi; Gaber A.M. Mersal; Chao Zhao; Shaden A.M. Khalifa; Hesham R. El-Seedi

Journal of King Saud University: Science (Jul 2021)

Unravelling the beehive air volatiles profile as analysed via solid-phase microextraction (SPME) and chemometrics

Aida A. Abd El-Wahed,
Mohamed A. Farag,
Walaa A. Eraqi,
Gaber A.M. Mersal,
Chao Zhao,
Shaden A.M. Khalifa,
Hesham R. El-Seedi

Affiliations

Aida A. Abd El-Wahed: Department of Bee Research, Plant Protection Research Institute, Agricultural Research Centre, 12627 Giza, Egypt
Mohamed A. Farag: Pharmacognosy Department, College of Pharmacy, Cairo University, Kasr el Aini St., P.B. 11562, Cairo, Egypt; Department of Chemistry, School of Sciences and Engineering, The American University in Cairo, New Cairo 11835, Egypt; Corresponding authors at: Pharmacognosy Department, College of Pharmacy, Cairo University, Kasr el Aini St., P.B. 11562, Cairo, Egypt (M.A. Farag). Pharmacognosy Group, Department of Pharmaceutical Biosciences, Uppsala University, Biomedical Centre, Box 574, 751 23 Uppsala, Sweden (H.R. El-Seedi).
Walaa A. Eraqi: Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Faculty of Pharmacy, Cairo University, Cairo 11562, Egypt
Gaber A.M. Mersal: Chemistry Department, College of Science, Taif University, Taif 21944, Saudi Arabia
Chao Zhao: College of Food Science, Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, Fuzhou 350002, China
Shaden A.M. Khalifa: Department of Molecular Biosciences, The Wenner-Gren Institute, Stockholm University, S-10691 Stockholm, Sweden
Hesham R. El-Seedi: Pharmacognosy Group, Department of Pharmaceutical Biosciences, Uppsala University, Biomedical Centre, Box 574, 751 23 Uppsala, Sweden; Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, Menoufia University, 32512 Shebin El-Kom, Egypt; International Research Center for Food Nutrition and Safety, Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang 212013, China; Corresponding authors at: Pharmacognosy Department, College of Pharmacy, Cairo University, Kasr el Aini St., P.B. 11562, Cairo, Egypt (M.A. Farag). Pharmacognosy Group, Department of Pharmaceutical Biosciences, Uppsala University, Biomedical Centre, Box 574, 751 23 Uppsala, Sweden (H.R. El-Seedi).

Journal volume & issue: Vol. 33, no. 5
p. 101449

Abstract

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Objective: Beehive air therapy is recognized as a potential remedy for treating asthma, bronchitis, lung fibrosis, and respiratory tract infections. Developed countries in which beehive air therapy is currently authorized include Germany, Hungary, Slovenia, and Austria. However, scientific proof of its efficacy is lacking which warrants further chemical and biological analyses as a proof of concept. In this study, beehive air volatile profile was determined for the first time along with its individual components (bees, venom, honey, and beeswax). Methods: Volatile compounds were collected from beehive air using solid phase micro-extraction (SPME) coupled to gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC–MS). Antimicrobial assay of the air released from 4 beehive products was further performed against Staphylococcus aureus, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Acinetobacter baumannii, and multi drug-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) using the in vitro agar-well diffusion and microtiter plate assays.Results and conclusions: A total of 56 volatile compounds were identified from beehive air, venom, bee insect and wax air including 6 fatty acids, 6 alcohols, 10 aldehydes, 5 esters, 1 ether, 9 hydrocarbons, 1 phenol, 7 ketones, 1 nitrogenous compound and 10 terpenes. The most abundant constituents were short-chain fatty acids (26.32%) while the lowest were the nitrogenous compounds (0.82%). The principal component analysis (PCA) scores plot of the UPLC/MS dataset showed the similarity of the beehive air to the insect bee's aroma profile. With regards to antimicrobial assay, beehive air and venom exerted the strongest antimicrobial activity among the examined bee products against S. aureus, K. pneumoniae, A. baumannii, and MRSA in agar-well diffusion assay but failing to exert an effect using microtiter plate assay as in case of bee venom against the aforementioned bacteria.

Published in Journal of King Saud University: Science

ISSN: 1018-3647 (Print)
Publisher: Elsevier
Country of publisher: Saudi Arabia
LCC subjects: Science: Science (General)
Website: http://www.journals.elsevier.com/journal-of-king-saud-university-science/

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