Pyrrolizidine Alkaloids: The Botanical Origin of Pollen Collected During the Flowering Period of and the Stability of Pyrrolizidine Alkaloids in Bee Bread

Overview

Journal Molecules

Publisher MDPI

Specialty Biology

Date 2019 Jun 16

PMID 31200507

Citations 8

Authors

Christina Kast

Verena Kilchenmann

Hans Reinhard

Katharina Bieri

Otmar Zoller

Affiliations

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Abstract

Previous studies have shown that pollen products sold as nutritional supplements and used in apitherapy may contain toxic pyrrolizidine alkaloids (PAs) if bees collect pollen from PA-containing plants, such as . In this study, the botanical origin of pollen from two observation sites was studied. Despite a high PA content in pollen samples that bees collected during 's flowering period, bees were found to collect relatively few pollen loads. Thus, the monitoring of pollen loads collected at the apiaries is unviable to estimate the risk of PA contamination in pollen or bee bread. In a second step, the stability of PAs in bee bread samples containing PAs at concentrations of 2538 ng/g and 98 ng/g was assessed over a period of five or six months, respectively. No significant PA reduction was observed in bee bread stored at 15 °C, but there were overall PA reductions of 39% and 33% in bee bread stored at 30 °C, reflecting hive conditions. While PA -oxides decreased over time, other types of PAs remained relatively stable. Monitoring PAs in pollen products remains important to ensure consumer safety and should include echivulgarine (and its -oxide), the major PA type found in pollen from .

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