MICROBIOLOGICAL QUALITY, ANTIOXIDATIVE AND ANTIMICROBIAL PROPERTIES OF SLOVENIAN BEE POLLEN

Bee pollen can be considered as perfect food with a great nutritional value, highprotein and essential amino acid content, vitamins and minerals. It can be a sourceof healthy nutrients, but as an animal product also of harmful microbialcontaminants. The aim of our study was to determine potential health risks andbenefits of Slovenian bee pollen. We determined its i) microbiological burden:aerobic mesophilic microorganisms, yeast, molds, and coliform bacteria in CFU/g;ii) polyphenolic content: the Folin-Ciocalteu method (mgGA/g); iii) antioxidativepotential (AOP): DPPH• scavenging assay (EC50 in mgGA/L); and iv)antimicrobial activity (MIC): microdilution method on Escherichia coli, Listeriamonocytogenes and Campylobacter jejuni. We analyzed 14 samples of bee pollengathered from 7 Slovenian geographical regions, from April until May 2017. Themicrobiological burden was high, with all indicator tests reaching up to 6.78log10CFU/g of bee pollen, but the number of coliform bacteria in all samples from2.00 to 4.48 log10CFU/g. The polyphenolic content and AOP of the samples wasgood, with up to 13.1 mg GA/g and as low as 2.4 mgGA/L (EC50), respectively.Interestingly, antimicrobial activity was not always in correlation withpolyphenolic content, but always strongly against E. coli, substantial against C.jejuni, and negligible against L. monocytogenes. Our results show a great healthpotential of bee pollen for human health, but also the need of bee pollen processingimprovement for its standardized quality and safety.