Análise dos constituintes químicos dos polens apícolas monoflorais de dendê (Elaeis guineensis Jacq.), piaçava (Attalea funifera Martius) e sensitiva (Mimosa pudica Linn)

Abstract

Bee pollen is produced by collecting hundreds of pollen grains from plant flowers plus salivary secretions from Apis mellifera bees. The Northeast of Brazil is the region that most stands out in the production of bee pollen, mainly monofloral bee pollen from palm trees. From an economic, nutritional and therapeutic point of view, monofloral bee pollen has the advantage of always presenting the same characteristics In this sense, the objective of this work was to analyze the chemical constituents of monofloral bee pollen collected from oil palm (Elaeis guineensis), piassava (Attalea funifera) and sensitive (Mimosa pudica) species by UPLC-DAD-qTOF-MS/MS, to determine the total phenolic content, mineral content and evaluate the scavenging activity of free radicals. The leishmanicidal activity was evaluated for the biflavonoid rhusflavone, isolated from sensitive bee pollen. The palynological analysis of the samples showed an average pollen frequency of 62% of A. funifera, 90% of M. pudica and 62% of E. guineensis. Through the analysis by UPLC-DAD-qTOF-MS/MS it was possible to identify three main classes of compounds: spermidine derivatives, lipids and flavonoids. From the bee pollen of M. pudica, the biflavonoids rhusflavone, amentoflavone and rhusflavanone were isolated. Rhusflavone showed leishmanicidal activity against the promastigote and amastigote forms of L. amazonensis. The pollens had the predominant minerals: magnesium followed by potassium, sodium, calcium and manganese, in addition to traces of zinc, iron and selenium. The samples also showed anti-radical activity that may be related to phenolic compounds, mainly flavonoids. The results show that the monofloral bee pollens of the species Elaeis guineensis, Attalea funifera and Mimosa pudica are potential sources of bioactive compounds.