I'm still on my hunt for the very elusive research on B12 & pollen
So far I've managed to exhaust just about every resource I've got without any result. It looks like there's no evidence for this claim at all.
So, until I can dig up some actual proof one way or the other I'm left with supposition. Here's my take on the pollen/B12 idea:
First we've got pollen. Pollen is the male reproductive spoor. If polen itself contained B12 we could eat flowers (or at least certain flowers) & get B12, so it can't be the pollen, itself.
Next we get to the transportation system of pollen from flower to hive. Here's a brief run down on the journey:
Quote:
POLLEN is not bee excretement as some believe. Pollen is the male seed of flowers required for fertilization of a plant. These minute particles consist of corpuscles formed at the free end of the stamen in the heart of the blossom. Every variety of flower in the universe puts forth a dusting of pollen.
There are two kinds of pollen. One is carried by the wind (anemophile), while the other (entomophile) must attach itself to insects coming into the flower. The entomophile pollen is heavier and different altogether from the other kind. Plants that produce this type of pollen are dependent on bees for their survival. These pollens are never airborne and are not responsible for seasonal allergies. Entomophile pollens are actually an effective treatment for allergies brought on by anemophile pollens.
When a bee arrives at a flower, she scrapes off the powdery pollen with her jaws and front legs and moistens it with a dab of honey she brought with her. She then places it into her pollen baskets, which are concave areas in her hind legs. These are partially hidden with a thick layer of bristles called pollen combs. The bee uses these combs to brush the powder from her coat in midflight. She then rams the pollen into her baskets on each leg, keeping her load balanced so she can fly. Each leg hold only two granules of bee pollen at a time and will take her an hour to collect. Each granule weighs approximately 1/1000th of a gram. It takes about 1200 pellets to fit into a teaspoon. This is roughly 2.5 billion grains of pollen.
So, now we see the introduction of honey. Could this contain the elusive B12?
Fortunately we can find the make up of honey from
http://www.nutritiondata.com/facts-001-02s04ao.html & we find honey contains no B12.
That doesn't totally close the problem though because the bee carries the honey, so maybe bee saliva contains the missing B12, or possibily B12 is secreted by the bee onto the pollen during transportation (like sweat or similar)? As there appears no recent studies about B12 & pollen I can't see how they could have found out about bee pollen & B12. I may have missed the studies, I'll carry on looking, but it'll be a lucky find if I stumble across it now.
