Melissopalynological and biochemical profile of honeybee (Apis mellifera L.) flora in Southern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan

Abstract

Honey is a nutrient-rich natural substance prepared by honeybees from the nectars of flowers. Various factors including botanical composition of the bee diet, geographical locations and environmental features affect the biochemical properties of honey, including its composition in biomolecules. In the present study melissopalynological techniques were applied to identify the honeybee (Apis mellifera) flora using light microscopy. Phenolic and flavonoid contents in honey samples were analyzed via Folin-Ciocalteu and colorometric methods. Total reducing power, alpha-amylase and mineral contents were calculated by Phull’s method, and atomic absorption spectroscopy (AAS). Acacia nilotica (Ghawandi village), Cynodon dactylon (Jathanbanda), Saccharum spontaneum (Paniala), and Ziziphus jujuba (Kot Kashmir) were identified as the predominant plant species in four unifloral honey samples. In terms of biochemical properties, total phenolic contents ranged from 0.27 ± 0.094 to 1.76 ± 0.02 µg/mL while total flavonoid contents varied from 0.80 ± 0.1 to 1.23 ± 0.102 µg/mL. One of the applications of this investigation is that the pollen profile of honey samples here determined is useful for the identification of bee floral diet diversity and the geographical origin of honey. Moreover, the biochemical properties will be helpful to clarify the medicinal properties of honey samples. In addition to this, the biochemical profile of honey samples is the basis for further pharmacological analysis.