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Published on: November 11, 2022
Authenticity Assessment of Five Monofloral Honeys Based on Phytochemical Profiles
Yinan Du1,2, Xinyue Du3, Yue Wang3
1College of Life Sciences and Food Engineering, Hebei University of Engineering, Handan 056038, China.
Background:
Ensuring authenticity and verifying the floral origin of honey are persistent and critical issues in the quality control of bee products; in particular, the characteristic components and practical authenticity evaluation standards of several specialty fruit monofloral honeys are still insufficiently defined.
Methods:
To address this, we conducted a comparative analysis of five fruit monofloral honey (loquat, pomegranate, citrus, apple, and blueberry) phytochemicals using high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS), and the Similarity Evaluation System for Chromatographic Fingerprint of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM).
Results:
Based on the currently available literature and databases, eleven identified phytochemicals appear to be reported in honey for the first time, including quinic acid derivatives, phenolamides, and flavonoid glycosides. Characteristic components with high species dependence were identified in distinct honey samples: anisic acid in loquat honey; methyl syringate in pomegranate honey; caffeine in citrus honey; cinnamic acid and methyl syringate in apple honey; and phaseic acid, methyl syringate, isorhamnetin-3-O-neohesperidoside, and callunene in blueberry honey. Twenty-three commercial samples were collected from the retail market to assess authenticity using HPLC fingerprints and quantitative thresholds for characteristic components. Authenticity was assessed based on both chromatographic fingerprint similarity and the content thresholds of characteristic phytochemicals specific to each monofloral honey type. The results indicated that 19 commercial samples satisfied the proposed authenticity criteria, whereas four commercial samples showed inconsistencies in characteristic phytochemical profiles or fingerprint similarity.
Conclusions:
This research establishes reliable chemical markers and a quantitative method to assess the authentication of five monofloral honeys, supporting high-value product development.
