Pollen Analysis Of Honey Research Articles

Pollen Spectrum of Honey from the Bee Melipona subnitida Ducke (1910) in Restinga in Maranhão State

Abstract The study aimed to analyze the honey of Melipona subnitida to identify the plants visited by these bees in colonies installed in a restinga vegetation in Maranhao state. Honey was collected monthly from July/2017 to June/2018. The honey samples were submitted to the acetolysis method and the pollen grains were analyzed qualitatively and quantitatively. The pollen analysis of honey resulted in 54 pollen types and 26 families. The largest pollen variety was registered in Fabaceae. Quantitative analyzes of pollen grains in honey samples revealed that three were monofloral, in July/2017 with Avicennia germinans honey and December/2017 and January/2018 with Copaifera martii honey. In the other months, the heterofloral honeys. Melipona subnitida proved to be general in food gathering. Knowing the flora used by M. subnita contributes to the meliponiculturists to improve the handling of the colonies, the increase and quality in the production of honey.

A Hybrid Grey Wolves Optimizer and Convolutional Neural Network for Pollen Grain Recognition

Melissopalynology, or pollen analysis of honey, is one of the areas that benefited greatly from image processing and analysis techniques, where melissopalynology is the science that studies the pollen contained in honey, using a microscopic examination. Nowadays, developing an automatic classification system for pollen identification presents a challenge. This article presents a metaheuristic for image segmentation to detect pollen grains in images. It is a swarm intelligence technique inspired from grey wolf hunting behavior in nature, centered around respecting the hierarchy of a pack. It was tested on a set of microscopic images of pollen grains. To evaluate pollen detection, we represented the detected pollen grains using two methods, grey-level based representations where we kept grey value of each pixel, and a binary mask-based technique, where a pixel could have only two values (1 or 0). Then, we used a convolutional neural network (CNN) technique for image classification to predict the specie of each pollen. The proposed system was tested on a set of microscopic images of pollen grains. The obtained performance measures of the system proved that the system is very successful.

Melissopalynology, antioxidant activity and multielement analysis of two types of early spring honeys from Hungary

Two types of early spring Hungarian honeys, purchased as rape (Brassica napus L.) and ramson (Allium ursinum L.) honeys were identified and characterized. The 42 samples originated from various geographical locations, harvested in two different years. The unifloral origin of rape honeys was supported using melissopalynological analysis, while the samples marketed as ramson honeys were of multifloral origin with predominantly fruit tree or rape pollen grains. Color intensity and antioxidant capacities measured with 4 methods differed in uni- and multifloral honeys, but location and year of harvest had no influence within the honey types. Correlations were observed among antioxidant capacity values and color. The analysis of elements showed that essential elements were present in higher amounts in multifloral honeys, while in rape honeys the influence of geographical origin was observed. The concentrations of several toxic elements were below the detection limit (<0.1 mg kg−1) in the samples, indicating their good quality. Microscopical pollen analysis of honeys was used effectively to confirm their botanical origin, which was the most important factor to influence all of the measured parameters. Pollen spectrum, antioxidant potential and element content of honeys all served as useful indicators of their quality. Because of the large number of samples, this multi-level study provides reliable data about two types of early spring Hungarian honeys both for producers and consumers.

Bee flora resources and honey production calendar of Gera Forest in Ethiopia

Abstract. Bareke T, Addi A. 2019. Bee flora resources and honey production calendar of Gera Forest in Ethiopia. Asian J For 3: 69-74. Gera forest contains substantial coverage of natural forest and known as a Key Biodiversity Hotspot area for Coffea arabica conservation and one of the potential areas for beekeeping. The study was carried out to assess the bee flora and flowering calendar to harvest more honey following the flowering plant cycle. Semi-structured questionnaires, participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) techniques, and field observation were used for data collection. Honey samples collection was also made to identify the botanical origin of honey through honey pollen analysis. Seventy-four bee plant species were identified, which belongs to 41 families. Among the identified plant families, Asteraceae (29.3%), Lamiaceae (14.6%), Acanthaceae (12.2%), and Fabaceae (9.8%) are the most frequent families, represented by the highest species composition in the area. Four major honey harvesting durations were identified (January, March, April, and early June for Vernonia, Coffee, Schefflera, and Croton honey respectively) using the flowering calendar in Gera Forest. The pollen analysis of honey revealed that four types of monofloral honeys were identified comprising Schefflera abyssinica, Vernonia amygdalina, C. arabica and Croton macrostachyus in Gera forest. This is due to their abundance and potentiality for honey production. Therefore, the beekeepers should follow the flowering calendar of the plant to exploit the potential of the forest for honey production. Furthermore, market promotion for monofloral honeys of the Gera forest should be made as an incentive for the beekeepers to sell honey with premium prices and branding and labeling of honey of the area

Pollen Analysis of Honey from Borana Zone of Southern Ethiopia

Abstract Nineteen samples of honey were collected from different localities of the Borana Zone and examined to identify the botanical origin of honey through honey pollen analysis. From nineteen honey samples, sixteen were identified as monofloral honeys. Twentyeight plant species were identified as honey source plants and the identified plant species belonged to fourteen plant families. Out of twenty-eight bee plant species, 17.9% of them were found in the Fabaceae family followed by Asteraceae and Lamiaceae, each of them accounting for 14.3% of all honey plants species found in the samples. The Shannon-Wiener diversity index (H) showed that high diversity of plant species was found in eleven honey samples with a range of 1.07 (Bule Hora site 1) to 1.81 (Yabello site 2) on the basis of honey pollen analysis. Eight honey samples had lower diversity index values, ranging from 0 (Arero site 2 and Bule Hora site 3) to 0.84 (Gelana site1), which suggests the honey was obtained from a few dominant plant species. Accordingly, Guizotia scabra, Haplocoelum foliolosum, Plectranthus assurgens, Terminalia brownii, Sesamum indicum, Satureja paradoxa, Croton macrostachyus and Acacia brevispica were the major monofloral honeys produced from the area. This indicates that there is a huge potential for the production of monofloral honey. Since monofloral honey has a good market value and is preferred by consumers, the involvement of investors is recommended.

Review: Floral resources diversity of honeybees in important types of vegetation of Ethiopia

Abstract. Addi A, Bareke T. 2019. Review: Floral resources diversity of honeybees in important types of vegetation of Ethiopia. Asian J For 3: 64-68. The high biodiversity of Ethiopia is attributed to its wide ranges of altitude and great geo-morphological diversity. This has resulted in the existence of the region has diverse floral resources of which majority of them are honeybee flora. In this paper bee resources identification and reviewing bee forages were made to determine types of bee plants, floral diversity, flowering period and food source offered by the plants. Moreover, pollen analysis of honey from different regions of Ethiopia was analyzed for determination of major and minor honey source plants. Accordingly, over 1500 species of indigenous and exotic of plants belongs to 105 bee plant families were identified. The growth form analysis of bee forage comprising 41.6% herb, 28.7% shrubs, 21.7% trees, and 8% climbers. The majority of bee plant species flowered from September to November and April to May resulting in two major honey flow periods in the country. Melissopalynological analysis of the honey samples indicated that Schefflera abyssinica, Croton macrostachyus, Syzygium guineense, Vernonia amygdalina and Coffea arabica contributed for 80%, 64%, 86%, 77% and 75% of the total pollen count respectively from southwest and southeastern part of the country while Becium grandiflorum, Hypoestes forskaolii, Leucas abyssinica and Acacia spp. an accounting for 71%, 75.1%, 62%, and 70.5%, respectively from northern Ethiopia. On the other hand, Eucalyptus globulus and Guizotia scabra honey were from central Ethiopia, contributing to 94% of the pollen frequency. From this information, Ethiopia has rich bee forage diversity different vegetation types however, further collection and documentation of bee flora are required in unaddressed areas of the country. Thus in situ conservation, by ecological restoration, and raising and planting of seedlings of bee forages should be promoted for sustainable honey production.

Melissopalynology in Brazil: a map of pollen types and published productions between 2005 and 2017

We analysed scientific production related to melissopalynology in Brazil and surveyed the pollen types described in publications, producing a melissopalynological database. We inventoried articles published between 2005 and 2017 indexed in the Web of Science (WoS) and Scientific Electronic Library Online (SciELO). Searches in WoS involved researching the terms (1) mel?ssopalynolog*, (2) pollen analy?* AND honey, (3) bee* pollen, (4) pollen NEAR/15 bee*, (5) pollen analysis of honey, and (6) pollen analy?* NEAR/15 honey; in SciELO, we used the search terms (1) melissopalinologia, (2) pólen AND mel, (3) pólen AND abelha, (4) pólen apícola, and (5) análise polínica AND mel. Additionally, we consulted the resume of the principal authors of melissopalynology research in Brazil to identify articles published during that period but not appearing in other database searches. We uncovered a total of 133 publications distributed among 56 journals, with a mean of 4.92 authors/publication. A total of 1,362 pollen types were identified, representing 130 botanical families. Among those, the most well represented in terms of numbers of pollen types were Fabaceae (270), Asteraceae (89), Euphorbiaceae (61), Rubiaceae (58), Myrtaceae (51), Malvaceae (51), Bignoniaceae (49) and Arecaceae (48). Fifty-nine bee species were mentioned in the studies, distributed among 19 genera. Apis mellifera was the most frequently mentioned bee species (73 publications), followed by the native bee species Tetragonisca angustula (13 publications). The pollen types most frequently mentioned in the articles were (in decreasing order): Eucalyptus, Myrcia, Cecropia, Mimosa caesalpiniifolia, Vernonia, Poaceae type and Croton. The inventoried publications comprised all five geographical regions of Brazil, especially the northeastern region of that country, with 59 publications. There are still large areas of Brazil without any melissopalynological studies, however, principally the central-western and southern regions. As such, more research will be necessary to fill gaps in our knowledge of Brazilian palynodiversity.

Pollen analysis of honey from north-eastern Croatia

Pollen analysis of honey from north-eastern Croatia

Bee Bread Cells in Honey Super Distort The Results of Pollen Analysis of Honey

Abstract The pollen analysis is currently the only reliable test to determine honey variety, but the results are sometimes burdened with error. The main reason for this is additional pollen that got into honey in a way other than with nectar collected by bees but through the centrifugation of combs containing bee bread cells. Studies were conducted in 2012 - 2013 on how different numbers of bee bread cells placed in the honey super influence lime honey pollen analysis. Bee bread pollen getting into honey during extraction in centrifugal-force honey extractors was proven to significantly influence the results of pollen analysis. In some extreme cases, it might skew the results so much that correct determination of honey variety by pollen analysis is no longer possible.

The determination of the botanical origin in honeys with over-represented pollen: combination of melissopalynological, sensory and physicochemical analysis.

Pollen analysis of honey is the basic method for the determination of its botanical origin. However, the presence of over-represented pollen in honeys may lead the analysis to false results. This can be more severe if this pollen is present in unifloral under-represented honeys of commercial importance (e.g. thyme honey). In the present study, we investigated the abundance of over-represented pollen grains on several quality characteristics in honey samples. In particular, we mixed honeys characterised as over-represented, specifically chestnut and eucalyptus, with thyme honeys in different analogies, and we also analysed the melissopalynological, organoleptic, physicochemical (water content, electrical conductivity, colour) and volatile characteristics of the blends. The most sensitive parameters were the microscopic characteristics, followed by the organoleptic ones. Blends of thyme honey with an originally low percentage of thyme pollen were the most influenced and could not be characterised as unifloral regarding their melissopalynological characteristics, even when they were mixed with small quantities of honeys with over-represented pollen (i.e. 5%). The present study confirms that, in the case of presence of over-represented pollen in honeys, pollen analysis alone cannot give trustworthy results for the determination of the botanical origin, even though their exclusion during pollen analysis, when they are present in percentages of up to 30%, could provide more accurate results. Consequently, pollen analysis should also be combined with the other analyses, especially in honeys with under-represented and over-represented pollens, to give safer results for the botanical characterisation of honeys. © 2017 Society of Chemical Industry.

Comparative pollen analysis of honeys from apiary and open markets in Nigeria and Bénin Republic

There have been doubts as to the authenticity of honeys purchased in the open markets mainly due to sharp practices of vendors. Hence, pollen analysis was carried out on honeys from open markets and those from an apiary to ascertain the veracity of the claims. Eleven honey samples, six from the apiary and five from the open markets, were analysed for their pollen content. Pollen types and number in the apiary honeys varied between 7 and 13 and 57 and 64,000 respectively; the most dominant pollen types being those of Elaeis guineensis and herbaceous plants. Pollen types in the open market honeys on the other hand varied between 11 and 48 while counts varied between 626 and 241,623, and were dominated by pollen of Guinea savanna plants. Pollen assemblages in the apiary honeys reflected the surrounding vegetation of the apiary which was secondary forest as well as its production season. In contrast, pollen assemblages of all the open market honeys revealed their sources as being Guinea savanna zone. This however, indicates the vegetation of the producing locality of only one of the honeys and also contradicts the claim of a rainforest source for the others. Results from this study underscore the significance of melissopalynology in ascertaining sources of honeys, and highlight the importance of the Guinea savanna in beekeeping and honey production. Key words : Pollen, Bees, Guinea savanna, Botanical origin, Honey, Melissopalynology

Pollen analysis of honeys from the northwest of Argentina: Province of Jujuy

The palynological characterisation of 157 honey samples from three northwest regions of Argentina (Prepuna, Yungas and Chaco) are presented to determine their botanical origin and species associations to be able to define their geographic origin. Samples were harvested during 2003–2011 and processed by means of melissopalynological conventional techniques. One-hundred and nine pollen types were identified. Representative pollen types with a frequency of occurrence greater than 50% in descending order of importance are: Salix humboldtiana, Allophylus edulis, Baccharis, Solanaceae, Eucalyptus, Schinus, Brassicaceae, Papilionoideae, Celtis, Scutia/Condalia-type and Parapiptadenia excelsa. The most important monofloral honeys are from the following: Salix humboldtiana, Scutia/Condalia-type, Allophylus edulis, Baccharis, Blepharocalyx salicifolius, Gleditsia amorphoides, Myrtaceae, Sicyos, Ziziphus mistol, Schinopsis-type, Agonandra excelsa, Anadenathera colubrina, Mimosa, all of them native species, and among introduced species are Eucalyptus, Citrus and Tithonia. Three apicultural zones and their corresponding pollen association indicators were determined: Zone I, Prepuna: Arquita trichocarpa, Prosopis ferox, Schinus areira, Baccharis, Buddleja and Mutisieae; Zone II, Yungas: Myrtaceae, Parapiptadenia excelsa, Baccharis, Salix humboldtiana, Allophylus edulis, Scutia/Condalia-type and Zanthoxylum coco; Zone III, transitional area Yungas-Chaco: Prosopis, Salix humboldtiana, Schinus, Anadenanthera colubrina and Allophylus edulis.

Importance Du Couplage De L’inventaire Des Plantes Mellifères Et De L’analyse Pollinique Des Miels De La Saison Des Pluies En Zone Ouest Soudanienne Au Nord-Bénin

The melliferous plants vary from one area to another according to biotic, climatic and ecological factors. This study was realized in the Sudanese region of Benin, in order to inventorize honey plants visited by the honeybee Apis mellifera adansonii Latreille. Pollen analysis of 34 samples of honey from three apiaries in the northwest of the country, combined with direct observations around each apiary within 1000 m radius were realized per month. In total 129 species were censised including 109 species inventorized on the field and 73 taxa identified through pollen analysis. Among these taxa, 43 are identified until species level. The contribution of pollen analysis to the knowledge of melliferous plants is 15.50%. The pollen analysis of honeys and visual inventory of honey plants field are two complementary methods of studying the honey flora.

Determination of type of honey produced in the different climatic regions of Bosnia and Herzegovina

The aim of this study was to investigate the impact of the environmental characteristics of a particular climate areas of Bosnia and Herzegovina on the type of honey produced in those areas. Physical, chemical and sensory characteristics of honey and pollen content in honey are the subject of ongoing research in the world, but still there is no universal method for classification of honey. Pollen analysis of honey in combination with other tests, e.g., pH, electrical conductivity and sensory properties, is often used for determination of type of honey. Acceptability of honey by consumers is based on the evaluation of sensory characteristics in the first place, which depend on the origin of plants from which the nectar (pollen) or honeydew was collected. Consumers and manufacturers are interested in classification of honeys because the most important characteristics of honey are dependent on its botanical and geographical origin. In this study were examined sensory properties, pH, electrical conductivity and pollen composition of honey samples collected from different climate regions, at different altitudes and at different vegetation season of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Laboratory analyses were carried out in three parallel determinations of the same sample of honey. In this research, 48 samples of honey were examined, out of which 29 were nectar (pollen) honey, 11 were mixed honey and 8 were honeydew.

Pollen analysis of honey and pollen collected by Apis mellifera linnaeus, 1758 (Hymenoptera, Apidae), in a mixed environment of Eucalyptus plantation and native cerrado in Southeastern Brazil.

Eucalyptus plantations are frequently used for the establishment of bee yards. This study was carried on at Fazenda Brejão, northwestern region of the State of Minas Gerais, Brazil. This farm is covered both with native Cerrado vegetation (Brazilian savanna) and eucalyptus plantations. This paper reports on the botanic origin of pollen pellets and honey collected from honeybee (Apis mellifera) hives along a thirteen-month period (January 2004 to January 2005). The most frequent pollen types found in the pollen pellets during the rainy season were Trema micrantha (Ulmaceae), Copaifera langsdorffii (Fabaceae), an unidentified Poaceae, unidentified Asteraceae-2, Cecropia sp. 1 (Cecropiaceae) and Eucalyptus spp. (Myrtaceae); during the dry season the most frequent pollen types were Acosmium dasycarpum (Fabaceae), Cecropia sp. 1 (Cecropiaceae) and Eucalyptus spp. (Myrtaceae). Pollen grains of Baccharis sp. (Asteraceae), Cecropia sp. 1 (Cecropiaceae), Copaifera langsdorffii (Fabaceae), Mimosa nuda (Fabaceae), Eucalyptus spp. (Myrtaceae) and Trema micrantha (Ulmaceae) were present in the honey samples throughout the study period.

&lt;b&gt;Pollen spectrum of the honey of uruçu bee (&lt;i&gt;Melipona scutellaris&lt;/i&gt; Latreille, 1811) (Hymenoptera: Apidae) in the North Coast of Bahia State

Regional-level studies of floral resources used by social bees for honey production can contribute to the improvement of management strategies for bee pastures and colonies, by identifying the most visited flowers and thus characterizing the various geographical origins of honey. The objective of this study was to investigate, through pollen analysis, the types of pollen and nectar sources used by the urucu bee (Melipona scutellaris L.) in the North Coast of Bahia. Honey samples were taken monthly from five colonies in an apiary from August 2010 to July 2011. Pollen analysis of honey was performed by using the acetolysis method, followed by qualitative and quantitative analysis of pollen grains. Fifty pollen types belonging to 40 genera and 17 families were identified. The results indicate predominance of pollen types belonging to the families Fabaceae and Myrtaceae, which suggests that the bees preferred foraging from trees and shrubs. These plants should be included in regional reforestation projects in order to improve management of this bee species and honey production.

Palynological and Physicochemical Characterization of Honey in the Sudano-Guinean Zone of Cameroon

The palynological and physico-chemical characterization of honey was investigated in the Sudano- Guinean zone of Cameroon through the melissopalynology analysis. Results showed that honey with the dark amber color was the most represented. Sweet honey with less odour considered as pleasant highly predominate. The pH of honey is low and varies from 3.95 to 5.00; this ranking confirms the hypothesis that honey is from plant through visit of honeybees. The sugar content is very high ranging from 77.93% to 83.13%; the mean value is 78.90% and this value confirms that the honey is floral honey. The density value ranges from 1.39 to 1.43 and does not exceed the average standard (1.39 to 1.44 at 20℃). Water contents correspond to the standards norms. For free acidity, the highest value is 48.68 ± 0.28. There is a low positive correlation (r = 0.2) between free acidity and the pH of honey. Pollen analysis of honeys led to the identification of 41 pollen species belonging to 25 families. The highly represented families are Asteraceae and Myrtaceae. Two thirds of honey is monofloral and characteristics of three dominant species: Nymphaea maculata, Terminalia avicennioides and Syzygium guineense. The pollens of Syzygium guineense are present in all honey samples analysed.

Palynological Study of Honey Samples from Four Localities in Kogi East, Nigeria

Pollen-analytical examinations were made of four honey samples from four localities of Kogi State (Idah, Ajaka, Igalamela –Odolu and Inachalo-Oforachi). The control and check of honey for adulteration stimulated this study in honey pollen analysis. It sought to examine and ascertain the species of plants which were incorporated into honey. 10g of each thoroughly shaken honey sample were analyzed after acetolysis. Microscoscopic examinations were made using Carl Zeiss model of microscope. Pollen counts and fine morphological studies were made at x 400 magnification. Grain counts of 3,195, 2,274, 2,522 and 3,105 were recorded for Idah, Ajaka, Igalamela-Odolu and Inachalo-Oforachi respectively. A total of twenty one (21) pollen types were recorded, nineteen (19) of which were identified to family level while (2) remained unidentified. Identifications were carried out down to genetic level but sometimes to species or only to family levels. Some predominant pollen types included Leuceanea glauca, Parkia biglobosa, Elaeis guineensis, Phyllanthus sp and Bombax buonopozense. The four honey samples were unadulterated. This was deduced from the pollen weights and counts. From the pollen identifications, the botanical and geographical origin as well as the season of honey production of each sample were determined and also associated with definite vegetation types which reflected the vegetation of low land rainforest/Guinea savanna.

Pollen analysis of honey from the Baltic region, Estonia

The present study reports the results of pollen analyses of Estonian honey collected from 2000 to 2011. Altogether, the pollen content of 325 honey samples was analysed with an average of 400 pollen grains counted in a sample. The main focus was on the floristic spectrum of plants and on the identification of the most common and important plant sources for honey. More than 120 pollen types were identified in the examined honey samples. The results showed that the pollen types of Rosaceae, Brassicaceae, Salix and Trifolium were the most abundant among the samples. The pollen of Apiaceae, Fabaceae, Asteraceae, Poaceae, Fagopyrum esculentum, Frangula alnus and Calluna were present in more than 25% of samples. Typical Estonian honey is polyfloral, the average number of species is 13 taxa per sample. During the study period, changes observed were that the percentage of the Rosaceae and Calluna pollen types had decreased, while the proportions of the Brassicaceae and Salix pollen grains showed an increase. The concentration of pollen grains per gram of honey varies from 100 to 700 000. The current information provides new insights into the pollen composition of Estonian honey and could be used to develop analytical standards for the pollen content of Estonian honey.

Pollen grains in honeys produced by Tetragonisca angustula (Latreille, 1811) (Hymenoptera: Apidae) in tropical semi-arid areas of north-eastern Brazil

The flora of north-eastern Brazil offers a source of nectariferous–polliniferous species that support many native pollinators. However, few studies have examined the plant–Meliponini interaction, especially from the melissopalynological aspect. We assessed the flora exploited by Tetragonisca angustula in two caatinga (dry vegetation) areas in the Brazilian semi-arid region through pollen analysis of honeys with the goal of answering the following questions: (a) What are the most representative pollens found in the honeys? (b) Do certain pollen types function as regional geographic markers? (c) What are the characteristics of the trophic niche of T. angustula in these areas? The honeys (n = 27) were collected every month from October 2010 to December 2011 in Itaberaba and Ruy Barbosa, diluted in tepid water and 95 % ethanol and subsequently acetolysed. The results revealed 67 pollen types in the honeys, with 25 common to both study areas and most of them belonging to the family Fabaceae (>10 types). The most frequent pollen types were Heteropterys, Mikania, Myrcia, Prosopis juliflora and Solanum for Itaberaba and Heteropterys, Mimosa tenuiflora, P. juliflora, Schinus, Senna macranthera, Solanum and Syagrus coronata for Ruy Barbosa. Anadenanthera colubrina, Poincianella pyramidalis and Ziziphus joazeiro were considered markers for caatinga flora. The amplitude of the trophic niche varied between 0.36 and 2.55, while the evenness ranged from 0.15 to 0.77, characterising the foraging habit of T. angustula as polylectic with a more homogeneous use of the flora in Ruy Barbosa than in Itaberaba.