Fatty Acids and B Vitamins Contents in Honey Bee Collected Pollen in Relation to Botanical Origin

The study was conducted to determine the fatty acids and B vitamins concentrations of bee-pollen from the major pollen sources in Al-Ahsa, Saudi Arabia. The highest concentration of total lipids was obtained from bee-pollen collected from summer squash. The fatty acids analysis of fresh bee-pollen showed that the tested bee-pollen samples were rich in palmitic (C16:0), stearic (C18:0), oleic (C18:1), linoleic (C18:2), linolenic (C18:3), arachidic (C20:0), behenic (C22:0), and lignoceric (C24:0) acids. The amount of fatty acids was varied and well correlated with the origin of the samples. Among the fatty acids, oleic content showed high value in bee-pollen from alfalfa and date palm. The contents of stearic and linolenic fatty acids were found in high ratio in pollen collected from summer squash. The concentration (mg/100g) of B vitamins ranged from 0.04 to 0.77 (B3), 0.03 to 0.77 (B6), 0.03 to 2.33 (B9) and 0.05 to 2.50 (B12) in bee-pollen collected from the five plants sources. Overall, fatty acids composition of pollen containing both the unsaturated and saturated showed considerable variations affected by the plant species from which pollen was collected. It was concluded, that the fatty acids composition and vitamin B of bee-pollen can be correlated with the botanical origin.