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Exploring the physical, functional, thermal, and textural properties of bee pollen from different botanical origins of India
Author(s) -
Thakur Mamta,
Nanda Vikas
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
journal of food process engineering
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.507
H-Index - 45
eISSN - 1745-4530
pISSN - 0145-8876
DOI - 10.1111/jfpe.12935
Subject(s) - bee pollen , chewiness , pollen , food science , botany , thermogravimetric analysis , horticulture , principal component analysis , biology , chemistry , mathematics , organic chemistry , statistics
Bee pollen from different botanical sources (viz., coconut, coriander, rapeseed, and multi‐floral) of India were first time evaluated to determine the physical, functional, thermal, and textural properties. Coriander pollen showed the highest equivalent diameter (2.72 mm), surface area (23.28 mm 2 ), 1,000‐pollen pellet weight (8.14 g), and porosity (66.67%) among all samples. The analysis of functional properties revealed the maximum water‐ and oil‐holding capacity (0.72% and 2.13 g/g, respectively) and emulsion activity and stability (46.76 and 26.32%, respectively) in coconut pollen. Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) indicated the similar pattern of thermal degradation among samples on heating from 40 to 700 °C. Texture profile analysis (TPA) showed the maximum hardness (39.88 N) and gumminess (1,572.66 N) in coconut pollen whereas cohesiveness showed a positive correlation with springiness ( r = .98) and chewiness ( r = .95). Principal component analysis identified four principal components (92.02% variance) to differentiate the bee pollen and cluster analysis classified the pollen samples into four groups successfully. Practical applications Currently, the bee pollen has been consumed as a natural dietary supplement in the form of either fresh or dried pellet. The present investigation explores the physical, functional, thermal, and textural properties of bee pollen to demonstrate its potential in food processing. Data of this study may help the engineers to design the equipment for cleaning, grading, separation, drying, storage, and transportation of bee pollen. Results indicated the potential of bee pollen as a mouthfeel‐enhancing and flavor retaining agent and recommended its exploitation as a natural food additive in products like ice‐cream, cake, marshmallow, mousse, whipped cream, etc., to improve their nutritional, functional, and textural characteristics.