BackgroundPollen is a bee-product known for its medical properties from ancient times. In our days is increasingly used as health food supplement and especially as a tonic primarily with appeal to the elderly to ameliorate the effects of ageing. In order to evaluate the chemical composition and the biological activity of Greek pollen which has never been studied before, one sample with identified botanical origin from sixteen different common plant taxa of Greece has been evaluated.ResultsThree different extracts of the studied sample of Greek pollen, have been tested, in whether could induce proteasome activities in human fibroblasts. The water extract was found to induce a highly proteasome activity, showing interesting antioxidant properties. Due to this activity the aqueous extract was further subjected to chemical analysis and seven flavonoids have been isolated and identified by modern spectral means. From the methanolic extract, sugars, lipid acids, phenolic acids and their esters have been also identified, which mainly participate to the biosynthetic pathway of pollen phenolics. The total phenolics were estimated with the Folin-Ciocalteau reagent and the total antioxidant activity was determined by the DPPH method while the extracts and the isolated compounds were also tested for their antimicrobial activity by the dilution technique.ConclusionsThe Greek pollen is rich in flavonoids and phenolic acids which indicate the observed free radical scavenging activity, the effects of pollen on human fibroblasts and the interesting antimicrobial profile.
Chemical analysis of Greek pollen - Antioxidant, antimicrobial and proteasome activation properties
K. Graikou,S. Kapeta,N. Aligiannis,G. Sotiroudis,N. Chondrogianni,E. Gonos,I. Chinou
Published 2011 in Chemistry Central Journal
ABSTRACT
PUBLICATION RECORD
- Publication year
2011
- Venue
Chemistry Central Journal
- Publication date
2011-06-23
- Fields of study
Medicine, Chemistry, Environmental Science
- Identifiers
- External record
- Source metadata
Semantic Scholar, PubMed
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- No concepts are published for this paper.
REFERENCES
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