Pigments in the blue pollen and bee pollen of Fuchsia excorticata

Abstract

A comparison of the pigments in Fuchsia extorticata pollen with the pigments extracted from the unusually coloured blue-black 'fuchsia' bee pollen confirms the New Zealand tree fuchsia as the source of the bee pollen. The pigments were identified as the p-trans-coumaroylated derivatives of delphindin-, petunidin and malvidin-3-O-glucosides and delphinidin-3-O-(p-cis-coumaroyl-glucoside). The anthocyanins are accompanied by several flavonol glycosides; kaempferol-3-sophoroside, quercetin-3-sophoroside and kaempferol 3-neohesperidoside.