Recent research shows variations in pollen chemical constituents and, consequently, in their
therapeutic properties. Mono and multifloral bee pollen extracts were investigated for antioxidant and
enzyme inhibitory activity properties, phenolic compounds and fatty acid composition. Generally,
Eucalyptus spp. and multifloral extracts exhibited potent inhibitory activity against -amylase,
acetylcholinesterase, tyrosinase, lipoxygenase, lipase and hyaluronidase. On the other hand,
Miconia spp. demonstrated higher antihemolytic activity. Cocos nucifera and Miconia spp. extracts
exhibited important antioxidant properties in the different assays (ABTS, DPPH, -carotene/linoleic
acid and reducing power). Moreover, these extracts had greater amounts of total phenols and
flavonoids in comparison to others. The increase in antioxidant activity (decrease in EC50 values)
was accompanied by an increase in the amount of total phenols in the extracts. The pollen extracts
contained linoleic acid and -linolenic acid as major fatty acids, followed by palmitic acid, and oleic
acid. In this study, differences were observed in both chemical constituents and biological activities
of the samples related to the geographical and botanical origin of bee pollen.
We thank the Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel
(Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior-CAPES) and National Council for Scientific
and Technological Development (Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico-CNPq) for a
scholarship granted to Jucilene Silva Araújo (CAPES), for a research scholarship granted to Carlos Alfredo Lopes
de Carvalho (CNPq), financial support for the project and scholarship (CAPES) granted to Emerson Dechechi
Chambó, Leticia M. Estevinho and Samira Maria Peixoto Cavalcante da Silva. We thank beekeeper Márcio
Brazil for the pollen samples. This work was supported by the strategic programmer UID/BIA/04050/2013
(POCI-01-0145-FEDER-007569) funded by national funds through the Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia
(FCT), Portugal and by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) through the COMPETE2020-Programa
Operacional Competitividade e Internacionalização (POCI).
