In vitro and in vivo antioxidant properties of water and methanol extracts of linden bee pollen

Bee pollen is an important source of the herbal medicine with active bio-compounds, but there are no reports on its antioxidant properties. Herein, we report for the first time the antioxidant properties of two different (water and methanol) extracts of Linden bee pollen through analysis various in vitro and animal experimental (in vivo) antioxidant assays including DPPH free radical scavenging, superoxide radical scavenging, reducing power, superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity, lipid per-oxidant and total antioxidant capacity. The results demonstrated that the methanol extract of bee pollen exhibited the higher in vitro antioxidant activity than water extract. Besides, the animal experiments showed the dose dependent increase of superoxide dismutase and total antioxidant capacity in water and methanol extracts. MDA content was significantly lowered in medium and high treated mice group and there was no significant difference between two extracts. These results indicated that methanol extract of Linden bee pollen can be considered as a natural antioxidant source for the potential utilization in future herbal medicine.