A New Approach for Determination of the Botanical Origin of Monofloral Bee Honey, Combining Mineral Content, Physicochemical Parameters, and Self-Organizing Maps

Abstract

A new approach for the botanical origin determination of monofloral bee honey is developed. The methodology combines mineral content and physicochemical parameters determination with intelligent statistics such as self-organizing maps (SOMs). A total of 62 monofloral bee honey samples were analysed, including 31 linden, 14 rapeseed, 13 sunflower, and 4 acacia. All of them were harvested in 2018 and 2019 from trusted beekeepers, after confirming their botanical origin, using melissopalynological analysis. Nine physicochemical parameters were determined, including colour, water content, pH, electrical conductivity, hydroxymethylfurfural content, diastase activity, specific optical rotation, invertase activity, and proline. The content of thirty chemical elements (Ag, Al, As, B, Ba, Bi, Ca, Cd, Co, Cr, Cs, Cu, Fe, Ga, In, K, Li, Mg, Mn, Na, Ni, P, Pb, Rb, S, Se, Sr, Te, V, and Zn) was measured using ICP-OES, ICP-MS, and FAAS as instrumental techniques. The visualisation of the SOMs shows an excellent separation of honey samples in five well-defined clusters—linden, rapeseed, acacia, sunflower, and polyfloral honey—using the following set of 16 descriptors: diastase activity, hydroxymethylfurfural content, invertase activity, pH, specific optical rotation, water content, Al, B, Cr, Cs, K, Na, Ni, Rb, V, and Zn.

Multi-Element Profile Characterization of Monofloral and Polyfloral Honey from Latvia

“…• is higher than reports of Ethiopian [54] and Serbian honey [21]; • could be considered the same-but with higher means-as Estonian [55], Yemenian [56], Moroccan [57], Argentinian [58], Brazilian, and Portuguese honey [59]; • could be considered the same-but with lower means-as Polish [60][61][62], Slovenian flower [63], Hungarian linden [64], Romanian linden [65], Bulgarian linden [66], Italian [67], Malaysian [68], and New Zealand honey [69];…”

HPLC‐DAD Analysis and Versatile Bioactivities of Turkish Sunflower Honeys Using Chemometric Approaches

“…When SH is first harvested, it is bright yellow, fragrant, pollen-flavoured, slightly herbaceous and has a unique taste. [15,16] Based on the literature, there are studies on SHs showing physicochemical properties, [17] total phenolic and flavonoid contents, [18] volatile compounds, [19] phenolic profiles, [20,21] and biological activities such as antimicrobial, [22] antioxidant, [23] anticancer, [24] and tyrosinase enzyme inhibition. [25] However, scientific studies on the chemical content and biological activities of SH, which has the potential to be produced in high quality in Turkey, have not been detailed yet.…”

Multi-Elemental Analysis as a Tool to Ascertain the Safety and the Origin of Beehive Products: Development, Validation, and Application of an ICP-MS Method on Four Unifloral Honeys Produced in Sardinia, Italy

“…Given the importance of the sector for the economy of Sardinia, the traceability of their unifloral honeys should be ascertained with analytical methods aimed toward food authentication. Among the possible methods, those based on elemental metabolomics [ 10 ] provide great achievements in both botanical [ 11 , 12 ] and geographical classification [ 11 , 13 ]. The elemental metabolomics approach involves the determination of trace elements to achieve an elemental signature [ 10 ].…”

“…Despite trace elements being determined in honeys from many countries, such as Bulgaria [ 12 ], Kosovo [ 20 ], Ethiopia [ 24 ], Turkey [ 26 ], Italy [ 18 , 27 , 32 , 33 ], Poland and Greece [ 31 ], Hungary [ 34 ], and New Zealand [ 35 ], there are few contributions to the literature reporting on the amounts of trace elements in unifloral honeys produced in Sardinia. The literature is also poor regarding studies reporting on the elemental composition of the honeys of asphodel, eucalyptus, strawberry tree, and thistle produced out of Sardinia.…”

“…Regardless of the tool chosen for the elemental analysis, the data obtained should be elaborated using a multivariate approach, essential for classification purposes. Principal component analysis (PCA) [ 36 ], cluster analysis (CA) [ 32 ], discriminant analysis (DA) [ 35 ], partial least squares (PLS) [ 31 ], and self-organizing maps (SOMs) [ 12 ] provide great results in exploratory analysis and honeys classification.…”