A comprehensive study of parameters correlated with honey health benefits.

Slobodan Gadžurić,Nataša Milićević,Aleksandra Novaković,Marijana Sakač,Pavle Jovanov,Anamarija Mandić,Lato Pezo,Aleksandar Marić,Miroslav Hadnađev,Ana Đurović

doi:10.1039/d0ra10887a

Abstract

One hundred honey samples of different floral origin (acacia, sunflower, meadow, and forest) collected from nine European countries (Serbia, Albania, Croatia, Montenegro, Romania, Bulgaria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, North Macedonia and Hungary) were analysed for various physicochemical, sensory, antioxidant and antibacterial parameters. The relative antioxidant capacity index and relative antibacterial index were calculated, integrated and expressed as a new property – Power of Honey, intended to be used to predict the health potential of a honey based on its antioxidant and antibacterial activities. Free acidity and colour coordinates L* and a* were chosen for building an artificial neural network model for the prediction of honey health potential. These were chosen based on the obtained correlations between the investigated parameters and in light of the simplicity of the analysis. This model successfully predicted the Power of Honey with a gained coefficient of determination of 0.856. Forest honey samples exhibited the highest Power of Honey. This novel approach should make it possible for honey producers to predict the honey health potential of a particular honey based on a quick and simple analysis.

Highlights

Honey is widely regarded as one of the rst known functional foods
Since honey health potential is derived to a certain extent from its combined activities, the goal of this research was to predict various honey's health potential by (1) combining the results of antioxidant and antibacterial properties of different honey types to obtain the Power of Honey and (2) determining how and to what extent the Power of Honey is related to the examined physicochemical and colour properties of honey
This study aimed to examine the physicochemical, colour, and antioxidant and antibacterial property parameters of honey (Tables S1–S4†), and to identify their correlations (Table S5†), with the purpose of gaining insight into the honey health properties expressed as the Power of Honey

Summary

Introduction

Honey is widely regarded as one of the rst known functional foods. For centuries, if not millennia, it has been acknowledged for its bene cial health properties and as a ready-to-eat energy food.[1]. While the nutritional pro le varies between different types of honey, mostly in uenced by nectar, the secretions of owering plants and/or excretions of plant-sucking insects, as well as by climate conditions and soil composition,[2] the polyphenolic fractions are those elements which have been shown to be most responsible for observed differences in antioxidant activity.[3] Flavonoids, phenolic acids, higher molecular weight aInstitute of Food Technology in Novi Sad, University of Novi Sad, Bulevar cara Lazara 1, 21000 Novi Sad, Republic of Serbia. They do so by being incorporated into the cell membrane, thereby serving as llers imparting rigidity to the membrane or as scavengers of free radicals involved in lipid oxidation.[4] They may diffuse in the cytosol, where they reduce the oxidative enzymes' activity and prevent the depletion of glutathione, protecting cellular organelles from damage by free radicals. Antioxidant activity can be estimated through chemical analysis, which measures different facets of an antioxidant's presence and impact, or with biological analysis, by measuring the protective effects of antioxidants against cellular damage by free radicals.[5]

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