Chemical Profiling and Antioxidant Activity of Honey Produced in the Maltese and Gozitan Islands

Abstract

Honey has always been a prized possession in Malta since it is known for its therapeutical, medicinal and antioxidant properties. The main compounds responsible for such activities are the phenolic compounds. In this study, the chemical profile as well as the antioxidant activity of the honey produced in Malta and Gozo were analysed by several in vitro colourimetric assays, such as the DPPH and ABTS assay, to measure antioxidant activity. The Folin Ciocalteu and the aluminium chloride assays were also implemented in order to measure the total phenolic and flavonoid content respectively. CUPRAC, FRAP and TdPc assays were also performed. From a Kolmogorov Smirnov test it was noted that the data was not normally distributed and therefore a series of non-parametric tests were performed. Correlations were also obtained by implementing a Spearmans rho correlation test. From this study it was observed that the darker honey samples had more phenolic content which resulted in a higher radical scavenging activity. Therefore, this gives a clearer indication that the phenolic compounds are correlated with the antioxidant activity. The Gozitan honey was found to have a much higher phenolic content, a higher scavenging activity and greater FRAP values when compared to the Maltese honey. On the other hand, the Maltese honey showed higher flavonoid content and greater CUPRAC values. No significant differences were seen between the samples collected during 2020 and those collected during 2021.