Chemical Composition and Amounts of Mineral Elements in Honeybee-Collected Pollen in Relation to Botanical Origin

Abstract

A b s t r a c t This study was conducted at the apiary of the Agricultural and Veterinary Training and Research Station, King Faisal University, Al-Ahsa, Saudi Arabia. The purpose was to study the relationship between the botanical origin and chemical composition of bee-collected pollen. The amount of mineral elements present in bee-collected pollen was also studied. The composition of pollen loads showed the maximum contents of dry matter, ash, glucose, fructose, magnesium (Mg), phosphorus (P), and manganese (Mn) for the date palm; the maximum contents of protein, calcium (Ca), and zinc (Zn) for alfalfa; the maximum contents of fiber, and copper (Cu) for the sunflower; the maximum contents of the lipids and iron (Fe) for summer squash; and the maximum contents of sodium (Na), and potassium (K) for rape. Calcium was found to be correlated in a significantly (p<0.01) positive way with K, Na, Mg, P, Mn, and Zn. Copper, though, was correlated in a significantly (p<0.01) negative way with Ca, Mg, P, Mn, and Zn. The high levels of protein, ash, glucose, and fructose, and low lipid content found in bee-pollen from the date palm and from alfalfa, mean that pollen from the date palm and from alfalfa make an excellent food supplement. It was concluded, that the chemical composition of beecollected pollen can be correlated with the plant species from which pollen was collected.

Essential minerals and inorganic contaminants (barium, cadmium, lithium, lead and vanadium) in dried bee pollen produced in Rio Grande do Sul State, Brazil

“…Szczêsna (2007), Yang et al (2013) and Taha (2015) have reported similar results (0.8-43 and 0.3-2.5 mg/100 g) in pollen samples from other countries. Each sample in this study can be classified as a "source food" of Cu and a "high content food" of Mn.…”

“…Chinese samples showed Fe levels ranging from 7.5 to 20.8 mg/100 g (Yang et al, 2013). Higher Fe contents (between 33.8 and 56.2 mg/100 g) have been reported in samples collected in Saudi Arabia; this may be due to the different botanical origin of the samples (Taha, 2015). With regard to Fe contents of bee pollen in this study, sample 1 can be classified as a "high content food" and samples 3 and 5, both collected at the same apiary, can be classified "source foods" under ANVISA regulations (Brasil, 2005(Brasil, , 2012.…”

“…Statistical analysis showed significant difference in mineral content among samples, even among the 3 samples (B, C and D) collected at the same apiary. The levels of minerals may vary according to geographical and botanical origin of pollen grains (Szczêsna, 2007;Carpes et al, 2009;Morgano et al, 2012;Taha, 2015); therefore, pollen in samples collected at the same apiary may have been harvested from different flowers over the sampling period.…”

Plant–insect interactions: the role of ecological stoichiometry

“…However, the elemental composition of pollen has mainly been studied in relation to human diet supplementation. Thus, the function of pollen with respect to ecological stoichiometry is poorly understood (e.g., [80][81][82][83][84][85][86]). The limited data on pollen elemental composition and the more abundant data on its organic compounds (e.g., [87][88][89][90][91]) indicate that pollen is likely an excellent food, and its composition might be qualitatively comparable to animal tissue.…”

Characterization of phenolic profile alterations in metal-polluted bee pollen via capillary electrophoresis

“…Of the metals, the most predominant are iron, magnesium, manganese, copper, zinc, calcium, sodium, and potassium (Vit and Santiago, 2008). Considering this diverse composition, bee pollen is a nutritional supplement with a variety of properties that can be determined from the chemical nature of the compounds within bee pollen (Taha, 2015;Yang et al, 2013). One important group of compounds is polyphenols, which are directly related to the antioxidant capacity of several bee pollens (Denisow and Denisow-Pietrzyk, 2016).…”