Original article Carbohydrate composition of Slovenian bee pollens Jasna Bertoncelj, 1 * Toma z Polak, 1 Tina Pucihar, 1 Nata  sa Lilek, 2 Andreja Kandolf Borov  sak 2 & Mojca Koro  sec 1 1 Department of Food Science and Technology, Biotechnical Faculty, University of Ljubljana, Jamnikarjeva 101, Ljubljana SI–1000, Slovenia 2 Slovenian Beekeepers Association, Brdo pri Lukovici 8, Lukovica SI–1225, Slovenia (Received 22 December 2017; Accepted in revised form 7 March 2018) Summary Bee pollen is a source of nutrients that are important for humans. There is growing interest in bee pollen, mainly due to consumers wishing to use natural products for a healthy diet or for their therapeutic effects. The composition of bee pollen varies according to botanical and geographical origin. The aim was to define for the first time the carbohydrate composition of bee pollen from Slovenia. A total of twenty-eight samples of bee pollens were analysed for botanical origins and contents of water, sugars and soluble and insoluble dietary fibre. From the bee pollen samples analysed, ten were recognised as monofloral. Monosaccharides represented 96% of the sugar fraction, with ranges 13.2–27.8 g per 100 g dry weight for fructose and 10.6–28.5 g per 100 g dry weight for glucose. Levels of sucrose, maltose and melezitose were low. Total dietary fibre was 10.0–21.4 g per 100 g dry weight bee pollen, with 73–82% insoluble fibre. Bee pollen can thus provide a good source of dietary fibre. This study supports further nutritional propos- als for Slovenian bee pollen. Keywords Botanical origin, carbohydrates, dietary fibre, Slovenian bee pollen, sugars. Introduction Bee pollen is a mixture of flower pollens from various botanical sources that are collected by bees and aggluti- nated, using nectar and enzymes that are secreted from the bee salivary glands (Almeida-Muradian et al., 2005; Campos et al., 2016; Denisow & Denisow-Pietrzyk, 2016). Beekeepers obtain pollen for human consump- tion using traps at the entrance of beehives. Bee pollen represents a natural source of carbohydrate, protein, lipids and dietary fibre and also includes minor compo- nents such as amino acids, saturated and unsaturated fatty acids, minerals, trace elements, vitamins, carote- noids and phenolic compounds. The levels of these ingredients in bee pollen depend on its botanical and geographical origin and also on the climate, weather conditions, season, storage conditions and processing of the fresh pollen (Campos et al., 2008; Dom  ınguez- Valhondo et al., 2011; Yang et al., 2013; Bogdanov, 2016; Salazar-Gonz alez & D  ıaz-Moreno, 2016). With its high nutritional value, bee pollen represents a balanced food that can be used alone or as a nutri- tional supplement and also as a medicinal product (Szcz^ esna, 2007; Campos et al., 2016). This beehive product constitutes one of nature’s most complete and nutritious foods, because it contains almost all of the nutrients necessary for humans (Guin e, 2015). Bee pol- len also shows various human health-promoting effects, which include its antioxidant, antitumour, antimicrobial, antifungal, anti-inflammatory and immunostimulating activities (Pascoal et al., 2014; Komosinska-Vassev et al., 2015; Bogdanov, 2016; Denisow & Denisow- Pietrzyk, 2016). Furthermore, knowledge of the func- tional properties and nutritional value of bee pollen and its impact on certain medical conditions have promoted increased consumer attention (Serra-Bonvehi & Escol a- Jord a, 1997; Villanueva et al., 2002; Bobis ß et al., 2010; Estevinho et al., 2012; Feas et al., 2012; Soares de Arruda et al., 2013; Campos et al., 2016; Salazar- Gonz alez & D  ıaz-Moreno, 2016). On this basis, the quality criteria and standards of bee pollen for human consumption need to be estab- lished. However, at present, there are no standards at the European level for such bee products as bee pol- len. Only a few countries in Europe have guidelines or national standards for quality of bee pollen. An inter- national proposal for quality criteria for dry bee pollen for human consumption was reported by Campos et al. (2010), although, to date, Slovenia remains with no such legislation. *Correspondent: Fax: +386-1-2566296; e-mail: jasna.bertoncelj@bf.uni-lj.si International Journal of Food Science and Technology 2018 doi:10.1111/ijfs.13773 © 2018 Institute of Food Science and Technology 1