Plant sources for bee pollen load production in Sergipe, northeast Brazil

Abstract

In Brazil, the production of bee pollen loads began modestly in the late 1980s, stimulated by consumption of natural products. Demand and consumption have increased, and there has been no increase in scientific studies. This work aims to expand scientific knowledge by identifying the plants used by Apis mellifera L. as sources of pollen loads in the State of Sergipe, Brazil. Twelve samples were collected from January to December 2011, in the municipalities of Barra dos Coqueiros, Brejo Grande, Estância and Pacatuba, all located in the eastern region of Sergipe. For the study of the pollen grains, the bee pollen underwent the usual laboratory processing techniques (acetolysis). For the analysis 500 grains were counted from each sample and, for botanical identification, the specialised literature and the pollen library were used. A total of 46 pollen types, distributed in 19 families, were found. Fabaceae was the family displaying the greatest diversity of pollen types (19), and the genus Mimosa L. was the most diverse (8). The families Asteraceae, Anacardiaceae, Myrtaceae and Rubiaceae were represented by three pollen types each, and Lamiaceae, only two types. The other 13 families presented one pollen type each. Only eight pollen types were classified as very frequent (> 50%); however, only Cocos nucifera occurred in 100% of the samples. It can be concluded that the families Arecaceae and Fabaceae are the major pollen sources for production of bee pollen in the state of Sergipe, followed by Asteraceae, Anacardiaceae, Poaceae and Rubiaceae. Pollen spectra revealed that at least 29 genera of plants contribute to the bee pollen load production in the tropical rainforest zone in northeastern Brazil.

Honey bee foraging ecology: Season but not landscape diversity shapes the amount and diversity of collected pollen

“…Besides quantity [ 6 ], the diversity of collected pollen is important for honey bee health [ 7 , 8 ]. Honey bee colonies forage on an area of more than 10 km 2 and several studies have reported on the diversity of collected pollen [ 2 , 9 – 12 ]. But the ways in which land use change and agricultural intensification influence the amount and diversity of collected pollen remains largely unexplored.…”

Physicochemical composition and antioxidant potential of bee pollen from different botanical sources in Alagoas, Brazil

“…are an important plant for the generation of bee pollen in apiaries of the Brazilian Northeast (Alves;Santos, 2014). In the southern coast of the northeastern state of Bahia, Brazil (city of Canavieiras), Dórea, Novais and Santos (2010) collected bee-pollen with high relative frequencies of Elaeis, M. pudica and Cecropia pollen types.…”

“…Apiculture meets the requirements of sustainability in the agriculture sector and is one of the few activities in the northeast region of Brazil that represents a new dynamic for income management, since the biome and tropical climate in this area provides food and development conditions for bees throughout the year (Alves;Santos, 2014).…”

Temporal variation in production and nutritional value of pollen used in the diet of Apis mellifera L. in a seasonal semideciduous forest

“…Attalea speciosa was present in the diet of bees throughout the year, becoming dominant in November, December and August. Studies on pollen production in other regions of the northeastern Brazil reported that species of Arecaceae (e.g., Cocos nucifera) are always frequent throughout the year in the diet of honeybees, emphasizing the importance of this family for A. mellifera (Almeida-Muradian et al, 2005;Arruda et al, 2013;Alves & Santos, 2014).…”