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Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology

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Mon, 30 Nov 2015 01:56:16 -0500
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Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology <[log in to unmask]>
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Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology <[log in to unmask]>
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John Chesnut <[log in to unmask]>
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>> For that matter, what is the pH of sugar syrup that has been reduced and capped for
storage? <<

Pure sucrose syrup is consumed by bees. In their honey crop, the bees add the enzyme invertase.  Invertase quickly hydrolyzes the sucrose solution to form a solution of fructose and glucose.   The resulting solution is acid (~4.5) because fructose is acid in reaction.   The process of spliting sucrose (a 12 carbon sugar) involves loosely bonding H+ and OH- ions (from water)  to the resulting 6 carbon sugars.  The H+ floats in and out of bond in the solution, resulting in a more pH activity.  The solution is acid and more concentrated because some water has been consumed in the inversion.   

One can (like Mr. Bush's kitchen experiments) invert sugar without the assistance of the bee's crop enzymes by adding an acid to the solution.   The acid catalyzes the reaction of hydrolysis.   The risk (and one that Mr. Bush does not acknowledge) is the formation of toxic HMF as the over acidification quite capably drives the reaction past simple production of fructose and towards the toxic decomposition products of fructose.   In industrial (and bakery) application, the acid (typically tartaric, as in cream of tartar) is neutralized to prevent over-reaction and off-tastes.

Acid + moderate heat inverts syrup in minutes.  The resulting solution is acid in reaction because of loosely bound H+ ions.  Invertase (from the bee's crop) performs the exact same function.  I understand the rate of reaction of invertase is relatively slower than acid+heat additions.

Why the Mr. Bush wants to abandon "natural" enzymatic transformation of nectar-like syrup and generate a synthetic invert product is never expressed.  I don't believe he has ever conducted paired experimental trials for any of his theories.  They are unproven, and based on broad supposition.  His theory has to do with altering the pH of the gut (downstream of the honey crop) which is assumed in the theory to favor unhealthy microbial ecology.  

The addition of acid (Citric, Vinegar) catalyzes the acidification and inverts a stored syrup  -- it does not ferment as quickly in a feeding jar.  Black mold forms less quickly in the invert acid solution.   The solution tastes sweeter to the bee (a function of fructose, and the consumption of a molecule of water for each molecule of sucrose that has been hydrolyzed).  

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