Page 166 - 00. Complete Version - Progress Report IPEN 2014-2016

166 Nuclear Science and Technology | Progress Report

fluorescence technique
has around ten thousand bees; at least dou-
Anemia, due to iron-deficiency in the World, ble the population found in hives of other Bra-
is a public health problem that affects espe- zilian species. They are not large producers of
cially poor women and children (~ 8.8 % of honey, but they are very efficient producers of
the population). If it occurs in early childhood pollen (8 kg/year) and propolis (1.5 kg/year).
and infancy, it causes impair cognitive perfor- Specifically, the propolis produced by this bee
mance in language skill, motor ability and co- has several medical applications: it is used in
ordination. Anemia in Brazil is a public health the healing of wounds with an inflammatory
problem due to iron-deficiency. In the last de- process, in treatment of prostate tumors and
cade, according to National Health Surveillance has activity against herpes and rubella virus-
Agency (ANVISA), several strategies have been es. Considering its importance in medicinal
adopted for preventing iron deficiency in the use and the great variability in relation to bo-
Brazilian population, such as, the food fortifi- tanical origin, its standardization in relation
cation. However, this dysfunction is still a pub- to the dosage of inorganic elements, it is im-
lic health problem: the prevalence among chil- portant to meet the different medical applica-
dren under 5 years’ old and pregnant women tions. The objective of this investigation was
is in a range of 20-40 %. Recent studies have to perform its multielemental characterization
shown that Fe supplementation is still inap- using Neutron Activation Analysis and X-ray
propriately used: much iron fortified food does fluorescence technique techniques. Several
not reach the minimum amount (8md/day) or collections were performed after each flower-
exceed the recommended limit (44mg/day). ing, because several factors influence the com-
Among the food highly consumed by the Bra- position of propolis, such as: the collection site,
zilian population, wheat flour is a target of nu- the season, plants (trees and / or flowers) and
tritional interest (fortified food with Fe). The if the bee makes use of the land. These data
application of a fast and precise methodology increase the knowledge of its inorganic com-
to iron evaluation becomes necessary. In this ponents and can introduce improvements in
research, various brands commercially avail- the production of these extracts of propolis,
able were evaluated using X-ray fluorescence mainly as regards to toxicity.
technique (EDFRX). The results were compared
with the minimum amount recommended Applied Nuclear Physics,
and with the tolerable intake limit. The results Instrumentation and
obtained show that in some cases it is in seri-
ous disagreement with the established limits. Scientific Computing

Elemental characterization of the extract Instrumentation
of propolis produced by Scaptotrigona
Aff. postica bee from Brazil The measurement of short-lived isotopes of-

ten requires a compromise: either the source
The Scaptotrigona Aff Postica bee (Tubi) spe- is placed close to the detector, implying in
cies is an insect stingless belonging to Apidae pile-up problems in the first half-lives, or far-
family and subfamily Meliponinae. This genus ther, but then the count rates decrease quick-
occurs throughout Neotropics. In Brazil, it is ly after two or three half-lives. In an attempt
found in the northeastern, mainly in the Bar- to overcome these problems, a programma-
ra do Corda County (Maranhão). A Tubi hive ble sample positioning system was developed

Instituto de Pesquisas Energéticas e Nucleares