Phenolic profiles of nectar and honey of Quillaja saponaria Mol. (Quillajaceae) as potential chemical markers

Abstract

Quillaja saponaria Mol. (Quillajaceae) is one of the most important melliferous species in Chile, mainly as a source of monofl oral honey. Honey made by A. mellifera presents biological activity against pathogens and antioxidant capacity associated with the presence of phenolic compounds deriving from the nectar, as a result of bee honey foraging. The aim of this study was to identify and quantify the phenolic compounds from the fl oral nectar of Q. saponaria and the honey made in apiaries in the central zone, and compare the composition of the chromatographic profi les of nectar and honey to known phenolic compounds. The results obtained by HPLC-DAD (high-performance liquid chromatography with diode-array detection) showed a similar profi le of phenolic compounds, in which gallic acid, myricetin, rutin, quercetin and naringenin were identifi ed. The phenolic compounds detected could be used as a reference for future studies for determining potential chemical markers of this honey, complementing the present identifi cation of honeys by determining their botanical origin. The identifi cation of bioindicators of the fl oral origins for honey of this species could provide added value to honey commercialization by certifying the botanical origin of their chemical features and biological attributes.

The Value of Chilean Honey: Floral Origin Related to their Antioxidant and Antibacterial activities

“…However, recoveries of phenolic acids and lavonoids extracted from deionized water (pH 2) using Amberlite XAD-2 demonstrated diferent recovery percentages, probably depending on the structure of the phenols studied. Kaempferol, p-coumaric acid, and syringic acid were completely adsorbed, but the recovery of gallic acid, cafeic acid, and quercetin by methanol is much less eicient [13,[27][28][29].…”

“…The biosynthesis of these compounds may be stimulated by plants, lowering damages through their capacity to capture free radicals under stress conditions, and reduce the penetration of UV-B ultraviolet radiation. The representation of these compounds in honey produced from Q. saponaria may be associated with the high interannual variability of climate conditions of the central zone of Chile [13,30].…”

“…The antioxidant and antimicrobial activities of Chilean honey have been studied in the last years with excellent results. Q. saponaria, E. cordifolia, and R. trinervia are within the Chilean endemic species that produce monoloral honey that show antibacterial activity against pathogenic Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria and also multiresistant strains [4,[10][11][12][13][14]. With regard to antioxidant activity, honey from Q. saponaria and Azara petiolaris stand out due to potential shown in various in vitro models utilized to evaluate natural antioxidant capacity to inactivate reactive species.…”

The importance of weeds as melliferous flora in central Chile

“…A total of 100 µL of each sample was deposited on each of four microscope slides. The four preparations were observed under an optical microscope, and the pollen grains from each species were counted (Montenegro et al, 2003;Ramírez and Montenegro, 2004;Forcone et al, 2005;Fagúndez and Caccavari, 2006;Montenegro et al, 2013a). The pollen types that were identified and that corresponded to species that are considered weeds were classified according to their importance in Chilean crops, as specified by Matthei (1995), based on the classification system proposed by Holm (1979).…”

“…Thus, weeds used by melliferous bees as a nectar source can be important in honey production, even though the flora surrounding apiaries is primarily native. Several authors (Horn and Aira, 1997;Montenegro et al, 2003;Ramírez andMontenegro, 2004, Forcone et al, 2005;Fagúndez and Caccavari, 2006;Montenegro and Fredes, 2008;Böke, 2013;Ciappini and Vitelleschi, 2013;Montenegro et al, 2013aMontenegro et al, , 2013b have reported the presence of certain pollen types from diverse species considered weeds in monofloral honeys made from the nectar of native species, and monofloral honeys made from the nectar of weeds have even been reported. Many weed species are also pollen sources, as has been shown by several authors (Montenegro et al, 1992;Montenegro et al, 1997;Forcone et al, 2011;Chamorro-García et al, 2013), but in this work, we analyzed only nectar sources.…”