doi: 10.17113/ftb.54.04.16.4635 

Fatty Acid and Proximate Composition of Bee Bread

Muammer Kaplan¹, Öznur Karaoglu¹, Nazife Eroglu¹ and Sibel Silici^2*
 

¹TUBITAK Marmara Research Center, Food Institute, Gebze, TR-41470 Kocaeli, Turkey
²Erciyes University, Agriculture Faculty, Department of Agricultural Biotechnology, TR-38039 Kayseri, Turkey

Article history:
Received    February 7, 2016
Accepted   July 29, 2016

Key words:
bee bread, fatty acid composition, proximate composition, monofloral pollen, pollen analysis

Summary:
Palynological spectrum, proximate and fatty acid (FA) composition of eight bee bread samples of different botanical origins were examined and significant variations were observed. The samples were all identified as monofloral, namely Castanea sativa (94.4 %), Trifolium spp. (85.6 %), Gossypium hirsutum (66.2 %), Citrus spp. (61.4 %) and Helianthus annuus (45.4 %). Each had moisture content between 11.4 and 15.9 %, ash between 1.9 and 2.54 %, fat between 5.9 and 11.5 %, and protein between 14.8 and 24.3 %. A total of 37 FAs were determined with most abundant being (9Z,12Z,15Z)-octadeca-9,12,15-trienoic, (9Z,12Z)-octadeca- 9,12-dienoic, hexadecanoic, (Z)-octadec-9-enoic, (Z)-icos-11-enoic and octadecanoic acids. Among all, cotton bee bread contained the highest level of ω-3 FAs, i.e. 41.3 %. Unsaturated to saturated FA ratio ranged between 1.38 and 2.39, indicating that the bee bread can be a good source of unsaturated FAs.
 

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