PORTUGUESE BEE-POLLEN AS A SOURCE OF FLAVONOIDS

The bee-pollen is very used in traditional medicine and in recent years it as been object of many research works (Simal et al., 1988, Tomás-Barberan et al. 1989, Campos et al. 1990, Bonvehi et al. 1991). Pollen is an important accumulation area for diverse flavonoids wich can contribute to the quality control of this product.
We can also speculate about the function of the flavonoid coumpounds and the pharmacological actions of bee-pollen.

Thirty three pollen samples from the main producing areas in Portugal were analysed to determine their floral origine and the content of flavonoids.
There is a closed relationship between the pollinic taxons and the total flavonoids content.

No differences for the same taxons were observed on the geographic origin of the samples.

The analysis indicate that the plants visited for the honeybees in all region are the same and the majority of the samples as one predominant pollen (± 75%). The species found are Cistus ladaniferus, Eucalyptus globulus, Quercus ssp, Echium ssp and Ulex ssp.

International Symposium on Natural Phenols in Plant Resistance

M.G. Campos, C. Lourenço, A. Cunha, A. Rauter

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.1994.381.57