Honey is a very complex biological product. It has great diversity, giving it a multitude of properties, both nutritionally and therapeutically. This study aimed to study the physicochemical and microbiological characteristics of honeys collected during the dry and rainy seasons in the different phytogeographical areas of Benin. The study revealed that all honeys had pH, water content, electrical conductivity, ash content, free acidity, total sugars, and reducing sugars, respectively, ranging within 3.65-4.09; 12.07-13.16%; 530.25-698.50 s/cm; 0.42-0.53%; 35.67-40.52 meq/kg; 60-70%; and 58-70%. Moisture content, total sugars, and reducing sugars varied very significantly ( < 0.05 to < 0.001) from one area to another and from one season to another. However, only the production season has a significant influence ( < 0.05) on the pH of the honey. With regard to the ash content, free acidity, and electrical conduction, no significant difference ( > 0.05) between the zones or between the seasons was observed. The results of the microbiological characterization showed that there is heterogeneity in the microbial load. These results have shown that these honeys meet international standards and their characterization will make it possible to obtain Beninese quality labels.

Introduction: Propolis is a resinous natural substance collected by honeybees from buds and exudates of various trees and plants; it is widely accepted that the composition of propolis depends on the phytogeographic characteristics of the site of collection. Objectives:The aim of this study was to determine the phytochemical composition of ethanolic extracts from eight propolis batches collected in different regions of Benin (north, center, and south) and Congo, Africa.Material and methods: Characterization of propolis samples was performed by using different hyphenated chromatographic methods combined with carbon-13 nuclear magnetic resonance ( 13 C NMR) dereplication with MixONat software. Their antioxidant or anti-advanced glycation end-product (anti-AGE) activity was then evaluated by using diphenylpicrylhydrazyl and bovine serum albumin assays, respectively.Results: Chromatographic analyses combined with 13 C NMR dereplication showed that two samples from the center of Benin exhibited, in addition to a huge amount of pentacyclic triterpenes, methoxylated stilbenoids or phenanthrenoids, responsible for the antioxidant activity of the extract for the first one. Among them, combretastatins might be cytotoxic. For the second one, the prenylated flavanones known in Macaranga-type propolis were responsible for its significant anti-AGE activity. The sample from Congo was composed of many triterpene derivatives belonging to Mangifera indica species.Conclusion: Therefore, propolis from the center of Benin seems to be of particular interest, due to its antioxidant and anti-AGE properties. Nevertheless, as standardization of propolis is difficult in tropical zones due to its great chemodiversity, a systematic phytochemical analysis is required before promoting the use of propolis in food and health products in Africa.

The aim of this work was the melissopalynologycal analysis of the honey samples collected both during the dry and rainy seasons of the three phyto-geographical zones of Benin. The analysis was performed by conventional methods on 60 honeys samples. The total of 138 taxa have been identified at family level (31), genus level (20) and to the level species (87). The number of pollens counted varies according to the phyto-geographical zones. Thus, 17091 pollens have been counted in the samples of the Sudanian zone; 13884 in those of the Sudano-Guinean zone and 7960 pollens in those of the Guinean zone. The pollen content of the honey samples reflects the plant species of the three phyto-geographical zones. The most dominant plant taxa were Combretaceaes (26.01%) and Parkia biglobosa (10.67%) in Sudanian zone, Combretaceae (29.52%) in SudanoGuinean zone. In the Guinean zone, the dominant taxa were Zea mays (18.35%) and Terminalia (15.34%). The specific richness varies from 6 to 43 in the Sudanian zone, from 7 to 34 in the Sudano-Guinean zone and from 1 to 28 taxa in the Guinean zone. None of the density of the dominant pollens reached 45%, thus all the analyzed honeys are polyfloral.

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