Palynological, Antioxidant and Physicochemical Properties of Pollen Loads from Eastern Anatolia

Abstract

Bee pollen is a very important bee product with its wide biological content as well as being a protein source in the nutrition of larvae and young bees. In our study, palynological, antioxidant and some physicochemical analyses were performed on bee pollen loads taken from some provinces of the Eastern Anatolia Region of Turkey. According to the palynological analysis, pollen grains belonging to 62 plant taxa were observed. The highest and the lowest value of total phenolic content were determined as 15.05±0.46 and 9.81±0.59 μg GAE/ mg, respectively. Antioxidant analysis of DPPH radical scavenging activity was performed. As a result, the best activity was found at 16.93±0.92 μg TE/mg. The pH, electrical conductivity and L, a b values of the samples were found to be 4.62±0.015-4.86±0.005, 2371.0±22.6-3008.0±22.9 mS/cm, 56.6±0.02-59.9±0.01, 11.5±0.01-12.2±0.02, 50.9±0.01-53.1±0.03, respectively. In this context, it can be said that the physicochemical and biological activities of bee pollen samples vary depending on the plant and geographical origin.