Botanical Origin and Nutritional Values of Bee Bread of Stingless Bee (Heterotrigona itama) from Malaysia

Table 7

Heavy metal (mg/kg) composition in H. itama bee bread and comparison with the maximum acceptable level of metals.

Heavy metal (mg/kg)	Geographical locations					Bee pollen standard^1	Food regulation, 1985 (mg/kg)^2
	UPM (residential area)	Batang Benar (residential area)	Rinching Hilir (residential area)	MAEPS (agricultural area)	Average
Arsenic	0.0867 ± 0.0038^b	0.0177 ± 0.1002^c	0.0773 ± 0.0084^b	0.1570 ± 0.0157^a	0.0847 ± 0.0494	<0.5	1
Mercury	0.0307 ± 0.0025^a	0.0260 ± 0.0036^ab	0.0237 ± 0.0021^b	0.0213 ± 0.0058^b	0.0254 ± 0.0035	<0.03	0.05
Antimony	0.0187 ± 0.0006^b	0.0217 ± 0.0055^ab	0.0267 ± 0.0064^ab	0.0323 ± 0.0006^a	0.0249 ± 0.0052	NA	1
Cadmium	0.0653 ± 0.0021^d	0.1073 ± 0.0056^c	0.1497 ± 0.0124^b	0.4033 ± 0.0222^a	0.1810 ± 0.1312	<0.1	1
Lead	0.1980 ± 0.0096^d	0.2407 ± 0.0067^c	0.3307 ± 0.0101^b	1.0127 ± 0.0067^a	0.4455 ± 0.3309	<0.5	2
Stannum	0.1820 ± 0.0108^a	0.1420 ± 0.0125^b	0.1350 ± 0.0050^b	0.1373 ± 0.0067^b	0.1491 ± 0.0192	NA	NA
Copper	12.3497 ± 0.1476	12.9200 ± 0.6600^ab	12.1920 ± 0.3290^c	13.6067 ± 0.1106^a	12.7671 ± 0.5553	NA	NA
Chromium	1.4043 ± 0.0689^a	1.0287 ± 0.0206^b	1.3550 ± 0.1429^a	1.3037 ± 0.0227^a	1.2729 ± 0.1454	NA	NA

Data are presented as mean ± standard deviation of triplicate independent experiments. Mean values with different letters in the same row are statistically different (). “NA” = not available. ¹International bee pollen standards proposed by Campos et al. [33]; ²maximum accepted levels of metals according to the Malaysian Food Regulation, 1985 (Regulation 38), for food which is not specified.