Abstract
Since honeybee pollen is considered a “perfectly complete food” and is characterized by many beneficial properties (anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, anti-bacterial, etc.), it has begun to be used for therapeutic purposes. Consequently, there is a high need to develop methods for controlling its composition. A thorough bee pollen analysis can be very informative regarding its safety for consumption, the variability of its composition, its biogeographical origin, or harvest date. Therefore, in this study, two reliable and non-destructive spectroscopy methods, i.e., ED-XRF and ATR–FTIR, are proposed as a fast approach to characterize bee pollen. The collected samples were derived from apiaries located in west-central Poland. Additionally, some commercially available samples were analyzed. The applied methodology was optimized and combined with sophisticated chemometric tools. Data derived from IR analyses were also subjected to two-dimensional correlation spectroscopy. The developed ED-XRF method allowed the reliable quantification of eight macro- and micro-nutrients, while organic components were characterized by IR spectroscopy. Principal component analysis, cluster analysis, and obtained synchronous and asynchronous maps allowed the study of component changes occurring dependently on the date and location of harvest. The proposed approach proved to be an excellent tool to monitor the variability of the inorganic and organic content of bee pollen.
Highlights
Thorough analyses of honeybee products are supposed to provide essential information useful in multiple fields, such as food nutrition, environment pollution, toxicology
The comparison between the results provided by energy-dispersive X-ray Fluorescence (ED-XRF) and those from inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS)/inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES) enabled the evaluation of the usefulness of the presented methodology
In the step, sample P5 was used as the standard sample to develop the ED-XRF quantitative method for bee pollen analysis
Summary
Thorough analyses of honeybee products (including honey, pollen, propolis, etc.) are supposed to provide essential information useful in multiple fields, such as food nutrition, environment pollution, toxicology. Honeybee pollen is a source of protein, lipids, and other nutrients like minerals and vitamins. It is composed of different flower pollen shaped into granules by bee enzymes from salivary glands, honey, and nectar [3]. Due to its complex composition, bee pollen is considered a “perfectly complete food” [4]. This product is of growing interest to people who care about their health. Since pollen quality affects bees and humans, there is a high need to develop and standardize effective methods for analyzing and controlling its composition
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