Honey bees collect nectar, pollen and honeydew to produce bee products. One of them is honey, which due to chemical composition and properties is considered by human as a valuable food product. When honey bees collect substrates to produce honey they can bring contaminants to the hive. The presence of xenobiotics in bee products may lower their quality and devalue their properties, and also endanger human health. Many scientists agree that honey could be used to monitor geogenic or anthropogenic trace element anomalies in the area around the hives. As bee products are the final step of a bioaccumulation process, the chemical study of honey may provide useful information about the environmental quality of the area in which the bees feed, estimated to be about 7 km2. The trace elements most frequently analysed are copper, zinc, magnesium, lead, cadmium, mercury and arsenic. The mineral content of honey is recognised as an environmental indicator at least since 1984.
Authors
Additional information
- Category
- Publikacja monograficzna
- Type
- rozdział, artykuł w książce - dziele zbiorowym /podręczniku w języku o zasięgu międzynarodowym
- Language
- angielski
- Publication year
- 2012
