FLAVONOID CONTENT OF UNIFLORAL BEE POLLEN HARVESTED FROM TRANSYLVANIA EVALUATED SPECTROPHOTOMETRICALY BY ZROCL2 REAGENT
FLAVONOID CONTENT OF UNIFLORAL BEE POLLEN HARVESTED FROM TRANSYLVANIA EVALUATED SPECTROPHOTOMETRICALY BY ZROCL2 REAGENT

Summary/Abstract: Interest in food phenolics has increased owing to their role as antioxidants, antimutagens, and scavengers of free radicals and their implication in the prevention of pathologies such as cancer and cardiovascular disease. The flavonoid content of 9 honeybee-collected pollens of selected floral species (Helianthus annuus L., Matricaria chamomilla L., Taraxacum officinale Web., Pinus sp., Onobrychis viciifolia Scop., Centaurea cyanus L., Knautia arvensis (L.) Coulter, Salix sp.) was measured spectrophotometrically using a spectrofotometric method with zirconium oxychlorid (ZrOCl2) reagent, according to the patented method of Tamas (1980), which indicate that the zirconium oxychlorid are more sensitive to flavonoids than other reagents widely used for this specific purpose, like Folin-Ciocalteu reagent, AlCl3, 2,4-dinitrophenilhydrazine. In the current study, the obtained results, expressed in rutin equivalent, showed a great variability between the unifloral honeybee-collected pollens doing their different botanical origin. The flavonoid content of unifloral bee pollens ranged between 1.90 mgRUE/g (Knautia arvensis (L.) Coulter) and 31.89 mgRUE/g (Taraxacum officinale Web.). This proposed spectrophotometric method is simple, reliable and fast, in comparison with other previous colorimetric methods utilized for flavonoid content evaluation, requiring only one reagent witch reacts with all specific flavonoid compounds (flavones, flavonols and flavanones), both aglycons and glycosides, permitting their total estimation.

• Details
• Contents