Determination of Volatile Organic Compound Patterns Characteristic of Five Unifloral Honey by Solid-Phase Microextraction−Gas Chromatography−Mass Spectrometry Coupled to Chemometrics

Abstract

We report the evaluation of the floral origin of honey by analysis of its volatile organic compounds (VOCs) profile, joined with the use of combined pattern recognition techniques. Honey samples, from five floral origins, were analyzed by headspace solid-phase microextraction-gas chromatography-mass spectrometry, selecting 35 VOCs out of the entire profiles, which were analyzed by hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA), stepwise discriminant analysis (SDA), and K-nearest-neighbor (KNN). Both HCA and SDA were used as exploratory tools to select a group of VOCs representing similitude and differences among studied origins. Thus, six out of 35 VOCs were selected, verifying their discriminating power by KNN, which afforded 93% correct classification. Therefore, we drastically reduced the amount of compounds under consideration but kept a good differentiation between floral origins. Selected compounds were identified as octanal, benzeneacetaldehyde, 1-octanol, 2-methoxyphenol, nonanal, and 2-H-1-benzopyran-2-one. The analysis of VOC profiles, coupled to HCA, SDA, and KNN, provides a feasible alternative to evaluate the botanical source of honey.

Screening of volatile composition from Portuguese multifloral honeys using headspace solid-phase microextraction-gas chromatography–quadrupole mass spectrometry

“…Fifteen of these volatiles: ethanol, toluene, 1-methyl-2-(1-methylethyl)-benzene, translinalool oxide, acetic acid, furfural, 1-(2-furanyl)-ethanone, linalool, hotrienol, benzeneacetaldehyde, 1-nonanol, 1,3-dihydroxy-2-propanone, nonanoic acid, DDMP and 5-hydroxymethylfurfural, were detected in all samples (Table 3) but the ratio between the single components were different for each honey. Some of these 15 compounds ethanol, toluene, trans-linalool oxide, furfural, hotrienol and benzeneacetaldehyde, have been reported as common components of various honeys [32][33][34][35][36]. Each type of honey showed a typical composition.…”

“…Since the first SPME fibres becomes commercially available, it has been more and more used and the fields of application have been continuously growing, including a wide range of food analysis, namely the volatile composition of wines [18][19][20][21][22], beers [23], whiskeys [24][25][26], several kinds of fruits [27][28][29][30][31] and honeys [32][33][34][35][36], with nowadays about 3000 research papers published. The technique gained growing acceptance and increasing use in routine laboratories and industrial applications.…”

Antioxidant Capacity, Physicochemical and Floral Characterization of Honeys from the Northeast of Brazil

“…1 It is mainly composed by sugars (fructose and glucose), water and also contains small amounts of other constituents like proteins, vitamins, minerals, flavonoids, phenolic acids, enzymes, numerous volatile compounds and other natural products. [2][3][4][5][6] Among the chemical constituents, it contains a variety of organic compounds with antioxidant and radicalscavenging ability 7 and contributes to human health and nutrition, being considered a functional food. 3,[7][8][9][10][11][12] Othman 13 recently referred to an inverse honey and cancer relationship, showing sizeable evidences that honey is a natural immune booster, anti-inflammatory agent, antimicrobial agent, cancer "vaccine," and promoter for healing chronic ulcers and wounds.…”

Propiedades fisicoquímicas de mieles monoflorales de encenillo de la zona altoandina en Boyacá, Colombia

“…21,78 En mieles florales 4,17,33,34,38 y monoflorales y algunos de los compuestos identificados en éste trabajo han sido relacionados como responsables directos del aroma. 55,57,[79][80][81][82][83] La mayoría de las mieles indistintamente de su origen botánico, presentan más de un componente de los cuales derivan las propiedades y atributos sensoriales. 21 La presencia de Acetato de etilo, benzaldehído, bencenacetaldehido, dimetilsulfuro, furfural, limoneno, óxido de linalool y tolueno, se consolidan como marcadores moleculares de la miel de Encenillo y de los cuales derivan las tonalidades de aroma dulce, fragancias florales, ligero sabor y acento resinoso, cuyos valores umbrales de olor no son superiores a 5 partes por billón.…”