Identification of botanical marker candidates for buckwheat honey using a non-targeted approach based on liquid...

Novel authentication tools are needed to determine unambiguously the botanical or geographical origin of food products such as honeys. In this study, a non-targeted workflow was developed to discover and identify authenticity markers for buckwheat honey based on a 'dilute-and-shoot' approach using liquid chromatography coupled with high resolution mass spectrometry (LC-HRMS). A PLS-DA model was built using data obtained for 147 honeys whose characteristics had been checked with an orthogonal method (pollen analysis). The resulting model was able to distinguish buckwheat honeys from 13 other types of honey with a sensitivity of 100 %. Thirteen molecular features were identified as candidate markers for buckwheat honey, including three confirmed threshold markers: 4-hydroxybenzaldehyde, 2-hydroxypyridine and hydroxyquinoline-3‑carbonitrile. 2-Hydroxypyridine and hydroxyquinoline-3‑carbonitrile were first time reported as botanical marker candidates for buckwheat honey, highlighting the capacity of this approach to discover and identify novel candidate markers of authenticity. The present analytical workflow can be used, alone or in combination with other analytical techniques, to strengthen honey authentication.