Background
Flowers produce nectar and pollen. To honey bees the most important is pollen as it contains the protein, lipids and the bulk of the mineral supply. Existing knowledge of the chemical makeup of pollen is well established for amino acids and minerals but there is a paucity of knowledge about fatty acids (lipids).

Aims/Objectives
The aim of the project was to increase the knowledge of pollens’ fatty acid composition from at least 20 major beekeeper targeted plants in each State of Australia and to provide data on oil composition so that beekeepers or companies involved in formulating supplementary feedstuffs to the industry can refine dietary supplements.

Methods used
A pollen survey was conducted in all States of Australia which identified that 73 fatty acids were present in pollens from both native and exotic plant species. Of these, 42 fatty acids had no current name (no systematic identification) and only five fatty acids, well-known to science, were present in all plant pollen. These were palmitic (C16:0), stearic (C18:0), oleic (C18:1), linoleic (C18:2) and linolenic (C18:3) acids. Of these five common fatty acids, both palmitic and stearic acids are saturated fatty acids, oleic acid is a monounsaturated fatty acid, linoleic acid is a polyunsaturated fatty acid (also known as omega 6) and linolenic acid (proper name is alpha-linolenic) is a superunsaturated fatty acid (also known as omega 3). The most uncommon fatty acids in pollens surveyed were three unknowns: Unk13, Unk14 and Unk42 respectively.

Results/Key findings
The most dominant of the 73 fatty acids with an average concentration of 7.0 mg/g was linolenic acid, followed by linoleic acid (5.13 mg/g), palmitic acid (4.49 mg/g), oleic acid (1.78 mg/g) and stearic acid (0.53 mg/g) in all pollen samples (N=577). Fatty acids prevalent in more than 50% of pollen samples were arachidic (C20), found in 574 pollen samples; myristic (C14) in 564 samples; margaric (C17) in 447 samples; gondoic (C20:1) in 395 samples; behenic (C22) in 385 samples; palmitoleic (C16:1) in 382 samples; lauric (C12) and Unk30 in 365 samples; Unk19 in 335 samples; C15 (no trivial name) in 314 samples and Unk15 in 312 samples.

Of the 577 pollen samples, 19.1% remained unidentified after microscopically examining acetylosed pollen samples. There were 23 plant groups which had more than three representative pollen samples that could be identified as either from a named species or genus. The 23 plant groups identified covered 69.8% of the pollen samples analysed.

Implications for relevant stakeholders
Artificial feedstuffs for honey bees have been developed and are continually being refined. The knowledge of which fatty acids are naturally present in pollen and their concentrations should assist the beekeeping industry in this area. With this new knowledge, the improved way that fatty acid is added to dietary supplements will affect current performance and efficiency of supplementary feedstuffs.

Recommendations
The next step for the beekeeping industry should be to examine what effect some of the fatty acids or combinations thereof have on colony nutrition, health and productivity. Further development and scientific testing of any improved feedstuff should be laboratory and field tested.