Dioxin analysis in pine honey from Turkey

The aim of the study is to determine concentrations of polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins (PCDDs), polychlorinated dibenzofurans (PCDFs), dioxin-like polychlorinated biphenyls (dl-PCBs) and indicator PCBs (ind-PCBs) in pine (honeydew) honey, which is endemic and popular in Turkey. Marchalina hellenica, which lives on Pinus brutia, is the main source of honeydew, and Apis mellifera L. collects the honeydew for making the pine honey. Pine honey is a very important bee product due to the export all over the world. In this study, honey samples were collected from Muğla and were researched via microscope. The quality of honey samples was determined by correlating NHE (Number of Honeydew Elements) to NTP (Number of Total Pollen) ratio and the honey, which has NHE to NTP ratio higher than 4.5 was accepted as a high density-superior quality pine honey. According to identifications, which have been made via microscope, pooled high quality pine honey sample was selected and analysed for dioxin. All the dioxin results were found lower than the European Union regulatory limits

Assessing the performance of analytical methods for propolis – A collaborative trial by the international honey commission

Propolis is a resinous beehive product with extraordinary bioactivity and chemical richness, linked with the botanical sources of the resin. The potential of this product keeps captivating the scientific community, conducting to continuous and growing research on plant sources, composition, or applications in agriculture, cosmetics, pharmacy, odontology, etc. In all cases, the quality assessment is a requirement and relies on methods to extract the bioactive substances from the raw propolis and quantify different components. Unfortunately, besides the absence of international quality requirements, there is also a lack of standardized analytical procedures, despite the presence of several methodologies with unknown reliability, often not comparable. To overcome the current status, the International Honey Commission established an inter-laboratory study, with propolis samples from around the globe, to harmonize analytical methods and evaluate their accuracy. A common set of protocols was matched between twelve laboratories from nine countries, for quantification of ash, wax, and balsamic content in raw propolis, and spectrophotometric evaluation of total phenolics, flavone/flavonol, and flavanone/ dihydroflavonol in the extract. A total of 3428 results (97% valid data), were used to assess the methods’ accuracy following ISO-5725 guidelines. The within-laboratory precision, revealed good agreement levels for the majority of the methods, with relative variance below 5%. As expected, the between-laboratory variance increased, but, with exception of the flavanone method that revealed a clear lack of consistency, all the others maintained acceptable variability levels, below 30%. Because the performance of ultrasounds procedures was low, they cannot be recommended until further improvements are made.The authors are grateful to the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT, Portugal) for financial support by national funds FCT/MCTES to CIMO (UIDB/00690/2020). Thanks to the Programa Apíıcola Nacional 2020-2022 (National Beekeeping Program) for funding the project "Standardization of production procedures and quality parameters of bee products" and to Project PDR2020-1.0.1- FEADER-031734: “DivInA-Diversification and Innovation on Beekeeping Production”. National funding by FCT – Foundation for Science and Technology, through the institutional scientific employment program-contract with Soraia I. Falcão. A special thanks is given to Hartmut Scheiter and Allwex Food Trading GmbH, Bremen, Germany, for providing, handling and delivering the propolis blind samples.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Pollen Preferences of Hoplosmia Bidentata and Lithurgus Cornutus (Hymenoptera : Megachilidae)

In this study pollen from the scopae of two species of solitary bees was identified from five sites in Turkey in the vicinity of the Central Anatolian cities Ankara, Eskisehir and Cankin. The samples of Lithurgus cornutus (Fabricius) and Hoplosmia bidentata (Morawitz) (Hymenoptera: Megachilidae) were collected between June and August. Most of the 162 specimens contained more than one type of pollen. L. cornutus (Fabricius) was provisioned with pollen from eight families, H. bidentata (Morawitz) from eleven families. New types of pollen for both species were also identified.Wo

The effects of the pollen of erica manupuliflora Salisb. on the vegetative mycelium development of Morchella conica Pers.

Farklı konsantrasyonda polen içeren malt ekstrakt ağarın Morchella conica Pers. vegetatif misel gelişimine etkileri araştırıldı. Polen ekstraktı konsantrasyonları %1, %3, %5, %10 olarak hazırlandı. Vegetatif misellerin radyal büyüme hızları kriter olarak alındı. Polen ilave edilen besiyerlerinde vegetatif misel gelişimi kontrole göre daha hızlı oldu. Kontrol grubunda kolonizasyon süresi 9 gün olurken, bu süre %10 konsantrasyonda 7 gün, %5 konsantrasyonda 6 gün, %3 konsantrasyonda 6 gün ve %1 konsantrasyonda 4 gün oldu. Veriler istatistiksel olarak değerlendirildi. Verilere dayanılarak grafik çizildi.The effects of malt extract containing pollen at different concentrations on the vegetative mycelium development of Morchella conica Pers. were determined. The extract pollen concentrations were prepared as 1%, 3%, 5%, and 10%. The radial growth speeds of vegetative mycelium were taken as criteria. The vegetative mycelium developments in the agar media with pollen were more rapid than in the control group. The colonization period was 9 days in the control group, while it was 7 days at 10% concentration; 6 days at 5%; 6 days at 3% and 4 days at 1%. The data were treated statistically. Graphs based on the data were drawn

Plant Origins of Propolis from Hakkari, Turkey

In this study, palynological analysis of 64 propolis samples from Hakkari province in Eastern Anatolia Region of Turkey was carried out. By microscopic analysis method, pollen diagnosis was made in propolis samples, and plants which may be propolis sources, were estimated. As a result, 71 plant taxa belonging to 34 families were identified at different rates in propolis samples. The pollens of the plants belonging to the family Apiaceae (2.7%-35%), Asteraceae (3.4%-35.4%) and, Fabaceae (12%-66%) were considerably found in the propolis of the Hakkari province. This study is the first report introducing the plant profile of Hakkari propolis in detail