Characterization of the Quality and Floral Origin of Romanian Honey

ABSTRACT

Characterization of acacia, sunflower, rape, linden, and polyfloral Romanian honey was performed by high performance liquid chromatography, nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), and physicochemical analysis for classification by floral origin and to assess quality and storage conditions. The pH, electrical conductivity, moisture content, total solids, fructose/glucose ratio, ¹H and ¹³C NMR spectra, and 5-(hydroximethyl)-2-furaldehyde were measured in reference samples and in commercial honey of unknown floral origin. Polyfloral, sunflower, and linden varieties showed high electrical conductivity values between 400 and 550 µS/cm, whereas acacia and polyfloral honeys had high fructose/glucose ratios and total solids. Commercial samples of unknown floral origin were of lower quality, as half contained 5-(hydroximethyl)-2-furaldehyde concentrations between 15 and 130 mg/kg. Chemometric assessment of the results provided good discrimination between acacia, rape, and polyfloral honeys, whereas linden and sunflower varieties partially overlapped. The most significant parameters of discrimination were electrical conductivity, total solids, the ¹H NMR peak at 5.44 ppm, and the ¹³C NMR peak at 69.65 ppm.

KEYWORDS:

• Chemometrics
• high performance liquid chromatography
• honey
• HPLC
• Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR)

Acknowledgments

The authors thank the beekeepers for collecting the samples.