Brazilian bee pollen: phenolic content, antioxidant properties and antimicrobial activity

• Autor(a) principal: Arruda, Vanilda Aparecida Soares de
• Data de Publicação: 2018
• Outros Autores: Santos, Alexandre Vieria, Sampaio, Davi Figueiredo, Araújo, Elias da Silva, Peixoto, André Luís de Castro, Estevinho, Leticia M., Almeida-Muradian, Ligia Bicudo
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10198/24284
• topic: Antimicrobial activity; Bee pollen; Bleaching assay; DPPH; ORAC; Total phenolic compounds; β-carotene

Bee pollen has been promoted as a dietary supplement for humans due to its nutritional and bioactive properties. Sixty-two samples of Apis mellifera dehydrated bee pollen collected in Brazil (eight states and Federal District) were analyzed for phenolic compounds, flavonoids, antioxidant activity using DPPH, β-carotene and ORAC methods, and antimicrobial activity. The values obtained for total phenolic compounds ranged from 12.60 to 84.22 mg GAE/g bee pollen while total flavonoids oscillated between 1.90 and 36.85 mg quercetin/g bee pollen. The IC50 ranged from 0.35 to 13.42 mg bee pollen/mL of extract. The inhibition percentages ranged from 52.58 to 98.37% of bee pollen extract using the β-carotene method. When measured by the ORAC method, antioxidant activity was between 132.98 and 575.85 μmols eq. Trolox/g bee pollen. Bee pollen efficiently inhibited the growth of all the microorganisms studied. Candida albicans was the most resistant, while Staphylococcus epidermides was the most sensitive.