Protein content and amino acids composition of bee-pollens from major floral sources in Al-Ahsa, eastern Saudi Arabia

Abstract

Protein content and amino acids composition of bee-pollens from major pollen floral sources in Al-Ahsa, Saudi Arabia were determined to investigate the nutritive value of pollen protein relative to requirements of honeybees and adult humans. The major pollen sources were alfalfa, date palm, rape, summer squash, and sunflower. Bee-pollens from alfalfa and date palm showed high content of crude protein and amino acid concentrations. Bee-pollen from sunflower had low content of those components. Eighteen amino acids were found in bee-pollens from the five major floral sources. The highest concentrations of individual amino acids valine, leucine, isoleucine, phenylalanine and proline were obtained from alfalfa bee-pollen; lysine, arginine, cysteine, tryptophan and tyrosine from date palm; methionine, histidine, glycine and alanine from summer squash; threonine, serine and glutamic acid from sunflower; and aspartic acid from rape bee-pollen. The amino acid composition obtained from sunflower bee-pollen showed the lowest concentrations of the essential amino acids: isoleucine, leucine, methionine, phenylalanine and valine. Apart from methionine, arginine and isoleucine, the essential amino acids of bee-pollen from alfalfa, date palm, summer squash and rape exceeded the honeybees’ requirements. Methionine was the limiting amino acid in bee-pollens from the five selected sources. Concentrations of essential amino acids in the tested bee-pollens were variable and significantly correlated to their botanical origin of pollen. Bee-pollens from alfalfa, date palm and summer squash was found to be rich source of protein and amino acids for bees and for humans.

Sesame Sesamum indicum L. (Pedaliaceae): Foraging Behavior of Honeybees Apis mellifera L. and Physicochemical Properties of Honey

“…Our values were lower than protein and ash values of Kashmiri honey (El Sohaimy et al, 2015) and Nigerian honeys (Ndife et al, 2014). The variations of ash and protein content in honey may be related to the amount (Taha and El-Sanat, 2007) and the origin (Taha, 2015;Taha et al, 2018b) of the pollen content in the honey.…”

Amino Acid Profiling and Chemometric Relations of Black Dwarf Honey and Bee Pollen

“…Several structures of pollen gains were identified from the sampled colonies, namely, monolete ( Figure 1A), inaperturate ( Figure 1B), trizonocolpate ( Figure 1C), dicolpate ( Figure 1D), monolate ( Figure 1E), and trilete ( Figure 1F). The exile surfaces were psilate ( Figures 1A,C,D), scabrate ( Figure 1B), clavate ( Figure 1E), and echinate ( Figure 1F) It is apparent that those of monolete are possibly from the Fabaceae such as mimosa or the Anacardiaceae family such as Tapirira species (3), whereas trizonocolpate was similar to those belonging to longan flowers (11,36). Variation of pollen types was according to bee species, which largely associates with body size and flying distance.…”

Nectar and pollen sources for honeybees in Kafrelsheikh province of northern Egypt

“…Studies on nectar and/or pollen plants for honeybees were conducted in Brazil (Luz and Barth, 2012); in Costa Rica (Freitas, 1994); in Bulgaria (Atanassova and Lazarova, 2010); in Egypt (Taha, 2000, Helal et al, 2003, Fathy, 2008, Ismail et al, 2013, Abou-Shaara, 2015, Esmael et al, 2016); in Germany (Köppler et al, 2007, Beil et al, 2008); in India (Singh, 2003); in Iran (Mossadegh, 1990); in Italy (Fortunato et al, 2006); in Mexico (Villanueva, 1989); in Nibal (Paudayal and Gautam, 2011); in Nigeria (Dukku, 2003); in Palestine (Reyahi, 1999); in Philippines (Payawal et al, 1991); in Poland (Wróblewska et al, 2010); in Saudi Arabia (Taha, 2013, Taha, 2015a, Taha, 2015b, Taha et al, 2016, Adgaba et al, 2017, Al-Kahtani et al, 2017, Taha et al, 2019); in Spain (Seijo et al, 1994); in Turkey (Bilisik et al 2008); in USA (Baum et al, 2011).…”