Chemical analysis of Greek pollen - Antioxidant, antimicrobial and proteasome activation properties

Abstract

BackgroundPollen is a bee-product known for its medical properties from ancient times. In our days is increasingly used as health food supplement and especially as a tonic primarily with appeal to the elderly to ameliorate the effects of ageing. In order to evaluate the chemical composition and the biological activity of Greek pollen which has never been studied before, one sample with identified botanical origin from sixteen different common plant taxa of Greece has been evaluated.ResultsThree different extracts of the studied sample of Greek pollen, have been tested, in whether could induce proteasome activities in human fibroblasts. The water extract was found to induce a highly proteasome activity, showing interesting antioxidant properties. Due to this activity the aqueous extract was further subjected to chemical analysis and seven flavonoids have been isolated and identified by modern spectral means. From the methanolic extract, sugars, lipid acids, phenolic acids and their esters have been also identified, which mainly participate to the biosynthetic pathway of pollen phenolics. The total phenolics were estimated with the Folin-Ciocalteau reagent and the total antioxidant activity was determined by the DPPH method while the extracts and the isolated compounds were also tested for their antimicrobial activity by the dilution technique.ConclusionsThe Greek pollen is rich in flavonoids and phenolic acids which indicate the observed free radical scavenging activity, the effects of pollen on human fibroblasts and the interesting antimicrobial profile.

Predictive mathematical modeling for EC50 calculation of antioxidant activity and antibacterial ability of Thai bee products

“…The antioxidant activity seemed to be related to the total phenol content of the extract. Similar phenomena have been reported for propolis from Korea (Choi et al, 2006), Italian bee products (Buratti et al, 2007), Czech honey (Lachman et al, 2010), Brazilian honey (Sant'ana et al, 2014), Portuguese bee pollen (Morais et al, 2011), Greek bee pollen (Graikou et al, 2011), and Thai propolis (Siripatrawan et al, 2013). Flavonoids and phenolic components played an important role in the free radical scavenging capacity of the extract (Graikou et al, 2011).…”

“…Furthermore, the gram-negative bacteria possess a higher lipid amount than that observed in gram-positive bacteria (Morais et al, 2011).This lipid is a component of an endotoxin, which has responsible toxicity in the cell wall of gram-negative bacteria. Graikou et al (2011) reported that the MIC values of a Greek pollen-methanol extract were 0.74 and >10 mg/mL against S. aureus and E. coli, respectively. Morais et al (2011) found that the honeybee-collected pollen from Portuguese Natural Parks provided the MIC of 0.17% (w/v) for B. cereus, 0.21% (w/v) for S. aureus, and <5% (w/v) for E. coli.…”

“…Bee products such as honey, bee pollen, royal jelly and propolis from various geographical locations around the world have been found to possess antioxidant and antimicrobial activities (Buratti et al, 2007;Choi et al, 2006;Graikou et al, 2011). Honey the nectar that the honey bees collect and process from many plants (Ferreira Isabel et al, 2009)has been used in food as a sweetening agent (Nagai et al, 2001) and food preservative since ancient times (Ferreira Isabel et al, 2009;Nagai et al, 2001).…”

“…Honey normally consists of more than 150 substances, including complex mixture of sugars and small amount of polyphenolic compounds such as flavonoids and cinnamic acid derivatives (Buratti et al, 2007;Ferreira Isabel et al, 2009). Bee pollen is a fine, powder-like material produced by flowering plants and collected by worker honey bees formed into granules with added honey or nectar (Bogdanov, 2011).Bee pollen contains lipids, proteins, sugars, amino acids, vitamins, carotenoids and polyphenolics (Graikou et al, 2011).…”

Indexing and Environmental Risk of Allergenic Protein Subunits of Egyptian Pollens

“…Three different extracts of Greek pollen have been tested in whether could induce proteasome activities in human fibroblasts. The water extract of pollen was found to induce a highly proteasome activity (Graikou et al, 2011) showing interesting antioxidant effect because of flavonoids and phenolic acids, which indicate the observed free radical scavenging activity (Carpes et al, 2009). …”