Polyphenols in Brazilian organic honey and their scavenging capacity against reactive oxygen and nitrogen species

Abstract

Honey is an easily accessible honey bee product, increasingly popular due to its biological activities and beneficial effects on human health. This study aimed to evaluate the capacity of samples of organic blossom honey and honeydew honey from southern Brazil exported to consumers worldwide to deactivate reactive oxygen (ROS) and nitrogen species (RNS), as well as to characterize their phenolic profile and the content of vitamin C. All the honey extracts analyzed displayed high content of phenolic compounds (49.79–117.68 mg gallic acid equivalents/g honey polyphenol extract) and high capacity to deactivate peroxyl radical (ROO•), hypochlorous acid (HOCl), and nitric oxide (NO•). Honeydew honeys exhibited up to 6 mg ascorbic acid per 100 g. Based on the phenolic profile as well as on ROS and RNS scavenging, all the organic honeys analyzed were grouped using multivariate analysis. Therefore, the analyzed eight organic honeys produced in southern Brazil can be considered as good sources of bioactive phenolic compounds.

Keywords:

• phenolic compounds
• hypochlorous acid (HOCl)
• nitric oxide (NO•)
• peroxyl radical (ROO•)
• ascorbic acid
• Apis mellifera

Acknowledgements

The authors are thankful to Henrique Breyer, Daniel Breyer, and Ernesto Breyer, from Breyer & Cia Ltda, for their commitment and dedication, as well as for providing all the samples used in this project.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP, Grants # 2010/52679-9 and 2011/50651-2) and Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES, Finance Code 001) for supporting this research.