Pollen Characterization of Polyfloral Honeys from Laghouat Region (Algeria)

Abstract

Honey is naturally produced by honeybees from the nectar of plants. It is widely consumed as a health food product all over the world. Melissopalynology plays an important role in ascertaining the botanical and geographical origins of honey by studying the pollen contained in the honey. The pollen content of 19 honey samples of Apis mellifera L. from the Laghouat region of Algeria was analyzed. 100 pollen types belong to 49 families were identified, of which the most diverse were Asteraceae (12 pollen types), Fabaceae (9), Apiaceae, Boraginaceae and Lamiaceae (5 pollen types each). Asteraceae and Fabaceae were present in all the samples, while, Apiaceae Nitrariaceae, Euphorbiaceae, Brassicaceae, and Oleaceae were identified in more than 84% of analysed honey samples. The number of pollen types identified per sample ranged between 13 and 27 (mean of 19.1). All honey samples were classified as a polyfloral honey. The best represented secondary pollen types were Peganum harmala, Centaurea sp., Trifolium sp., Eucalyptus sp., Euphorbia sp., Olea europaea, Echium sp., Onopordum arenarium, Lotus type and Cistus sp. For the quantitative analysis, the pollen content of the studied honey samples ranged from medium (class II, 57.9% of the samples) to high (class III, 42.1 % of the samples), where the pollen density ranged from 23 400 to 351 250 in 10 g of honey, with an average of 108 002 grains /10 g.