Pollen analysis of honey from Laghouat region (Algeria)

Abstract

A microscopic analysis of 41 samples of honey obtained from several locations in the Laghouat region revealed the presence of 98 pollen types belonging to 48 families. Asteraceae, Fabaceae and Nitrariaceae were present in all the samples. Brassicaceae, Rhamnaceae and Apiaceae were identified in more than 80% of the samples. The families with highest diversity of pollen types were Fabaceae and Asteraceae with 13 and 11 types, respectively, Apiaceae and Boraginaceae with five types each. Twenty-seven honey samples (65.85%) were found to be monofloral and the remaining 14 polyfloral. The pollen types from Ziziphus lotus, Peganum harmala, Echium sp., Tamarix sp., Lotus, Eucalyptus sp., Eruca vesicaria and Thapsia garganica appeared as the predominant pollen. Eighteen pollen types were classified as very frequent, present in more than 50% of the samples. The number of pollen types identified per sample ranged between 14 and 40 (mean of 24.41). For the quantitative analysis, the pollen content of the studied honey samples ranged from medium (class II, 48.78% of the samples) to high (class III, 53.65% of the samples), where the pollen density ranged from 26 607 to 660 992 in 10 g of honey, with an average of 160 880 grains per 10 g.

Keywords:

• melissopalynology
• honeybees
• botanical origin
• arid and semi-arid area

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to express their sincere thanks to the local beekeepers for their support with honey samples, and to the forest governor and his assistants for their assistance in the scientific outputs.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).