Page 198 - AWSAR 2.0

174 || AWSAR Awarded Popular Science Stories - 2019
from a single plant only. In case of inadequate flora surrounding the hive, the honeybee will visit flowers of several plants and the resulting bee pollen is multi-floral. The plant sources of bee pollen strongly affect its behaviour and properties like colour, nutrients, and physico-chemical characteristics. Therefore, a vast research interest has been observed in bee pollen of several floral origins from different regions of the world to identify the peculiarities. India being rich in polliniferous and nectariferous plant species, distinguished climatological seasons throughout the year and huge terrain, is currently the home of about 2.5 lakhs beekeepers and nearly 18 lakhs bee colonies with the production of honey only. Major regions for beekeeping activities in India include Punjab, Jammu-Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Bihar and West Bengal. However, it is pitiful that bee pollen is an under-exploited commodity in India and no work was done to
explore the potential of Indian bee pollen in food sector.
Therefore, I decided to
study the bee pollen of different
plant sources from south-
western region (Karnataka
state), north-western region
(Rajasthan state) and northern
region (Haryana, Rajasthan,
and Punjab) of the country
according to chemical
composition, essential
nutrients, physical, textural
and functional properties,
and antioxidant (disease-
preventing) compounds. The present work may encourage the beekeepers to harvest bee pollen, in addition, to honey. This might be helpful in raising the economic status of beekeepers in the country because the honey industry is currently facing many challenges like honey laundering, antibiotic residues, and
adulteration in the international market. Further, the present work may prompt the Government of India to establish quality standards for bee pollen where its acknowledgement is still lacking. This research work is also important because floral and geographical origin is the basic aspect for bee pollen’s nutritional and functional quality, which may lead to the application of geographical indication (GI) of Indian bee pollen for the particular regional originality.
After characterizing the bee pollen from different regions, I found that all bee pollen samples were unifloral belonging to coconut, coriander and rapeseed, except the pollen collected from north-western region bee pollen (collected during August-September, 2017), which was multi-floral consisting of maize, pearl millet, onionweed, pigeon pea and cotton. Bee pollen from all floral sources was within the framework of international
(Brazilian, Argentinean and Swiss) standards. Bee pollen from all sources contained high levels of protein and minerals, especially iron, which supports its intake to fight malnutrition and anaemia in India. The low energy value, high amount of essential amino acids, omega-3 fatty acids (α-linolenic acid, docosahexaenoic acid, eicosatrienoic acid and eicosapentaenoic acid), and minerals (calcium, phosphorus, potassium, zinc and iron) not only suggests the Indian bee
pollen as a healthy food supplement but also shows its potential as functional food or health- promoting ingredient for better human health. The level of total polyphenol content (health- promoting constituents) varied according to the floral sources in following order: coconut < rapeseed < multi-floral < coriander which
Bee pollen is the fingerprint of plants from where it is collected. It is said to be mono-floral if pollen is collected from a single plant only. In case of inadequate flora surrounding the hive, the honeybee will visit flowers of several plants and the resulting bee pollen is multi-floral.