Pollen Analysis of Honey from Borana Zone of Southern Ethiopia

Abstract

Nineteen samples of honey were collected from different localities of the Borana Zone and examined to identify the botanical origin of honey through honey pollen analysis. From nineteen honey samples, sixteen were identified as monofloral honeys. Twentyeight plant species were identified as honey source plants and the identified plant species belonged to fourteen plant families. Out of twenty-eight bee plant species, 17.9% of them were found in the Fabaceae family followed by Asteraceae and Lamiaceae, each of them accounting for 14.3% of all honey plants species found in the samples. The Shannon-Wiener diversity index (H) showed that high diversity of plant species was found in eleven honey samples with a range of 1.07 (Bule Hora site 1) to 1.81 (Yabello site 2) on the basis of honey pollen analysis. Eight honey samples had lower diversity index values, ranging from 0 (Arero site 2 and Bule Hora site 3) to 0.84 (Gelana site1), which suggests the honey was obtained from a few dominant plant species. Accordingly, Guizotia scabra, Haplocoelum foliolosum, Plectranthus assurgens, Terminalia brownii, Sesamum indicum, Satureja paradoxa, Croton macrostachyus and Acacia brevispica were the major monofloral honeys produced from the area. This indicates that there is a huge potential for the production of monofloral honey. Since monofloral honey has a good market value and is preferred by consumers, the involvement of investors is recommended.

Botanical origin and characterization of monofloral honeys in Southwestern forest of Ethiopia

“…The honey samples were strained using double sieves and cheese cloth at the Holeta Bee Research Center (HBRC) laboratory to get pure honey from crude honey. The honey samples were then stored at 4℃ for further analysis (Bareke & Addi, 2019b ). For honey pollen analysis, the method recommended by the International Commission for Bee Botany (Louveaux et al., 1978 ) was adopted.…”

“…For quantification of the pollen types, at least 500 pollen grains were counted from each sample (Oliveira et al., 2010 ). The percentage frequency of the pollen taxa in all the samples was calculated excluding polleniferous plant species which were observed during honey pollen analysis (Bareke & Addi, 2019b ). Predominant pollen types (>45%) of the total pollen grains were counted; secondary pollen types (16%‐45%), important minor pollen types (3%‐15%), and minor pollen types (3%) were types of pollen allocated to one of the frequency classes for nectar source plants (Louveaux et al., 1978 ).…”

“…The honey samples were strained using double sieves and cheese cloth at the Holeta Bee Research Center (HBRC) laboratory to get pure honey from crude honey. The honey samples were then stored at 4℃ for further analysis (Bareke & Addi, 2019b).…”

“…Melissopalynology is the study of the botanical and geographical origin of honey through microscopic analysis of honey sediments in honey samples (Louveaux et al., 1978 ). Each plant species has their own genetic code of inheritance and special structural patterns, which enable pollen grains of one species to be differentiated from another (Bareke & Addi, 2019b ; Chauhan & Trivedi, 2011 ). Honey is produced either from multifloral or unifloral/monofloral.…”

Quantifying Nectar Secretion Potential of Hygrophila auriculata (Schum.), Heine (Acanthaceae), and Salvia leucantha Cav. (Lamiaceae) for Honey Production

“…Ethiopia has diversifed fowering plant resources in which most of them are honeybee plants [1]. Bee plants are those plant species that provide only pollen or both pollen and nectar [2] for honeybees. Te contribution of bee plant species to honey production depends on the foral morphology, anatomical structure of fowers [3], fowering phenology, and quality and quantity of nectar secreted [4].…”