Published in Scientific Bulletin. Series F. Biotechnologies, Vol. XXI
Written by Roxana SPULBER, Mariana-Graţiela VLADU, Ovidiu POPA, Narcisa BĂBEANU

Bee pollen is a fine powder gathered from different plant species, enriched and transformed by bees into a complex bee product. Most bioactive properties of bee pollen, including antimicrobial activity, have been attributed to phenolic compounds. The aim of this study was determination of botanical origin, total phenolic content, flavonoid content and antimicrobial properties of three different pollen types from Romania against some plant microbial pathogens. Due to the fact that bioactive compounds of bee pollen depends strongly on the plant source, we tested extracts of fresh monofloral and polyfloral bee pollen. The ethanol 70% was used for pollen extraction. In this study, three microbial agents were tested: two bacterial strains represented by Erwinia carotovora (subsp. carotovora) ICCF 138, Xanthomonas campestris ICCF 274 and one fungal strain represented by Aspergillus niger ICCF 92. Furthermore, total phenolic and flavonoid contents were carried out using Folin-Ciocalteau procedure and aluminum chloride spectrophotometric method, respectively. Qualitative screening of pollen extracts antimicrobial activity was tested by disc diffusion method. The palynological investigations allowed us to identify the botanical origin of bee pollen loads, represented by species of eight different genera. Pollen sample extracts revealed high values for phenolic and flavonoid contents and also demonstrated that possess antimicrobial activities. We tried to established if the total phenolic or flavonoid content were related to the phytopathogenic antimicrobial activity. Our results indicated that bee pollen could be considered a promising natural source of plants protection.

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