Origin of Bee Pollen
Pollen, the powdery substance in the anther of the stamen, is the male reproductive cell and sperm of the plant. Each stamen contains a style (filaments) and anthers, the style is usually a long stalk, and the pollen grows on the top of it, producing pollen grains, often called pollen. When pollen matures, anthers split and release a large amount of pollen, which can be divided into wind-borne flowers and insect flowers according to their transmission mode. Bees add some pollen and saliva to the collected pollen to make pollen stick into aggregates. Bee pollen and plant pollen have the same main ingredients, though bee pollen has a slightly higher sugar content. Both are used as food or medicine.
Pollen, as far as beekeeping is concerned, in addition to being used for pollination, is valued for providing the principal source of protein, fat and minerals in the bee’s diet, and for the use by beekeepers of surplus pollen for human use.
Pollen grain size, color, vary with plant species, as small as a few microns, to hundreds of micrometers, is 30 ~ 50 microns in diameter, and its color is light white to black all sorts of color, mostly yellow or pale tan, the surface of the pollen grains have all kinds of irregular grooves, and have apparent aperture, aperture size, shape and number of vary with plant species, Can be used to identify plant species. Mature pollen grains are composed of pollen wall and pollen contents, including vegetative nucleus and reproductive nucleus. Pollen is composed of inner wall and outer wall. The inner wall is soft and the outer wall is hard.
Bee Pollen Collection And Arrangement
In the blooming season, bees collect nectar as well as pollen. As well as collecting, they pollinate the plants. Because the whole body of the bee is covered with fluffy, and has a special structure of collecting powder, in a collection flight, can collect more than hundreds of flowers, each time can collect about 15 milligrams of pollen (two pollen balls), so to collect one kilogram of pollen to fly more than 60,000 times, can be said to be quite hard work. The way of collecting powder is to use nectar or honey to bond together to make flower powder ball first, put in the flower powder basket of hind foot, carry back to the storage in the honeycomb, fly back to the nest before the door, because of the collecting powder device that people find a place for, the flower powder ball on hind foot is blown down to fall into the collection powder box, the beekeeper takes back regularly, and the concentration is dry. The water content of the collected flower powder is usually more than 20%, and because of the mixed nectar or honey, the microorganism is easy to multiply and grow at room temperature, so that the fermentation deteriorates and mildew, so it needs to be dried quickly, so that the water content is less than 8%, to facilitate the preservation.
The commonly used drying method is hot air drying method, the pollen is spread in the drying plate into a thin layer, open the hot air dryer, the temperature is not more than 50°C is appropriate, continuous drying for several hours, during the drying should turn over the pollen several times, in order to accelerate drying; The other method is low-temperature vacuum drying, that is, putting pollens into vacuum freeze-dryer, freezing pollens to frozen state, and then pumping vacuum to oxidize water and achieve the purpose of drying. This method is the best way to maintain the flavor and effective components of pollens, but the equipment is expensive and the cost is high.
Bee Pollen Composition And Nutrition
Pollen’s chemical composition is quite complex and varies greatly from plant to plant. As a whole, bee pollen on average contains about 24% protein, 27% sugars (fructose and glucose), 5% lipids and vitamins, minerals, enzymes, nucleic acids and some highly active substances that are still unknown and beneficial to human body. More than half of proteins are in the form of free amino acids. It contains more than 20 kinds of amino acids, among which 7 kinds are essential for life. Dried pollen contains 10-13% amino acids, which is equivalent to 7 times of beef and eggs. The sugars are mainly fructose and glucose, which are easily absorbed and utilized by the human body. Low lipid content, mainly vegetable oils; Vitamin B group is the most abundant, including B1, B2, B6, pantothenic acid, folic acid, nicotinic acid, etc. Vitamin C and P content is also more and a small amount of vitamin D, E and trace biotin, choline and inositol, etc., but vitamin C will decrease with storage time; The minerals are potassium, calcium, magnesium, iron, zinc, manganese, copper and a small amount of trace elements such as selenium, cobalt, molybdenum, etc. Enzymes have catalase, amylase, sucrase, coenzyme and so on.
In general, pollen with high protein, low fat, low sodium, high content of calcium, magnesium, iron and the human body needs a variety of mineral composition and rich vitamin B group, is, as it were, the concentrate plant essence, every little grains of pollen is like a miniature of the treasure-house of “nutrition”, is considered to be one of the valuable natural health food, in addition some amount of pollen contains many kinds of special components such as: Pollen from lily and robinia pseudoacacia has high levels of carotene. Buckwheat, citrus pollen contains high content of rutin (vitamin P), and some kinds of flavonoids (flavone) such as elm, nightgrass, alfalfa, etc. (1398~2549mg/100g), has the effect of preventing heart and vascular diseases.
The Value And Edible Method Of Bee Pollen
Pollen, as a nutritious food, has been used by human beings as early as in ancient Greece, Egypt and Persia, and is more widely used in Modern European and American countries. China is one of the earliest countries to eat pollen. Cattail pollen and willow pollen were recorded in Shennong Materia Medica over 2,000 years ago. In 659 AD, the Chinese pharmacopoeia “Xinxiu Materia medica” introduced the use of wine to send pine pollen fitness treatment. Modern studies have proved that pollen can provide a variety of nutrients needed by the human body, and provide rich raw materials for the growth and repair of tissue and cells of the body. At the same time, the biological active substances contained in pollen can regulate the physiological functions of the body.
Athletes in mainland China are recommended to take pollen as a nutritional supplement for a long time, which has significant effects on improving physical strength, endurance and fatigue recovery. Pollen contains the most needed amino acids, enzymes, trace elements and a variety of vitamins, which shows that pollen has a permanent youth, prolong life is based on. Modern Japanese pollen scholar Dr. Yozao Iwa said: the nutritional value of pollen is many times more than the root, stem, leaf and cell of the plant, and the nutritional value of any food is lower than that of pollen, 7-8 times higher than that of milk and eggs, which is exactly the evaluation of the nutritional and health care value of pollen in modern times.
Pollen is a lot of more phyletic, the province common camellia, pu salt (poison sumac), rape, popcorn, flowers (multiple), such as pollen, each pollen have fragrance, and slightly sweet for color such as brown, yellow, pale yellow, usually pollen can be added to warm or cold water, fruit juice, tea drink, such as mixed with honey drink, its effect is better, It’s more helpful to recover from fatigue. The general dosage is 15~25 grams per day, children can reduce it appropriately, because it is health food, it needs to be continuously eaten or taken for a long time to show the effect. Dry pollen bubble warm water is not easy to dissolve, must be fully stirred, with dissolved after drinking.
The pollens sold in the market are directly dried granulated pollens (pollen original grains) and processed into capsules, ingot granulated, carrying small packages, etc. Because pollen contains part of nectar and various nutrients are easy to deteriorate due to hygroscopicity and mold growth, the original pollen grains in large bottles should be refrigerated to keep fresh after being opened. If they are placed for a long time, they should be placed in the freezer to avoid deterioration or damage to the ingredients.
