Determination of water content in Brazilian honeybee-collected pollen by Karl Fischer titration

Abstract

This paper assesses the performance of a chemical method based on the Karl Fischer titration to determine the water content in samples of dehydrated honeybee-collected pollen. The following analysis parameters were investigated: extraction temperature, particle size, reaction time, and weight of a dried pollen sample. After optimization, the method was used to determine the water content of 154 samples of dried honeybee-collected pollen from different geographical regions of Brazil. The Karl Fischer titration method, performed using a solvent mixture of methanol and n-octanol (1:1 v/v) at 50 C on pollen particles 600 mm in size produced the best results. Mean values for water content of the 154 samples of dried honeybee-collected pollen from 12 Brazilian regions ranged from 3% to 9%.