Ingested Pollen
Definition
Pollen consumed via honey, herbal preparations, strongly flavoured teas, or pollen-rich foods. Pollen grains resist gastric digestion and are recovered from stomach and intestinal contents; their assemblage reflects both deliberately consumed plant products and incidentally ingested airborne pollen.
- Field
- Forensic palynology, stomach content analysis
- Source material
- Stomach and intestinal contents
- Resists
- Gastric acid and digestion
- Routes
- Honey, herbal teas, pollen-rich foods, incidental inhalation-swallowing
Common questions
How does ingested pollen differ from pollen recovered from clothing or skin?+
Ingested pollen passes through the digestive tract, so its assemblage reflects what a person ate or drank shortly before death, not simply where they were standing. It can corroborate a last meal or a specific location where a pollen-laden food or drink was consumed.
Why does pollen survive when other stomach contents break down?+
The exine, the outer wall of a pollen grain, is built from sporopollenin, one of the most chemically resistant biological polymers known. It withstands gastric acid and enzymatic digestion long enough to be recovered and identified microscopically.
Related terms
- Cuticle Fragment
- A portion of the waxy cuticle layer from a leaf, stem, or fruit surface. Cuticle resists gastric acid and physical digestion and...
- Gastric Emptying Time
- The time required for food to move from the stomach into the duodenum. Liquid empties in 1-2 hours; a solid mixed meal...
- Sclerenchyma
- A plant tissue composed of thick-walled, lignified cells including fibres and stone cells (sclereids). Sclerenchyma cells are physically resistant to digestion and...
- Starch Grain
- A storage carbohydrate granule produced by plants. Each major food plant species produces starch grains with a characteristic size, shape, and hilum...
- Testa Fragment
- A portion of the seed coat. Testa fragments from food seeds (sesame, tomato, raspberry, fig, and so on) retain species-diagnostic surface sculptures...