Authentication of honey of different nectar sources and antioxidant property evaluation by phenolic composition analysis with chemometrics

Abstract

The chemometric second-order multivariate calibration method was applied to the qualitative and quantitative analysis of seven phenolic acids in honey samples with five different floral origins. First, based on the “second-order advantage,” reasonable resolutions and satisfactory quantitative results were obtained even in the presence of strong background interference and overlapping peaks in complex real honey samples. Average spike recoveries for the seven target analytes were in the range of 89.34–118.81%, with high correlation coefficient (r ≥ 0.9997), low limit of quantification (1.00–20.20 ng mL−1) and high sensitivity (0.135–0.375 mL ng−1). Second, the quantitative data of seven target analytes were analyzed by principal component analysis (PCA) on MATLAB software to classify honey of five nectar sources. These results indicated that there is a strong association between the content of major phenolic acids and the flower sources of honey. Third, the quantitative composition-antioxidant activity relationship analysis was evaluated by partial least squares (PLS) analysis and studied to provide reliable analysis of multi-marker antioxidant data. The results enable the continued exploitation and utilization of honey from different floral origins and further contribute to honey market development and choices in available honey for consumption.